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MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 




FRONTISPIECE 



MEMOIRS 



WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 

TO SECESSION AND THE 

CIVIL WAR 



BY 

JOHN H. REAGAN, LL. D. 

Postmaster-General of the Confederacy; Sometime United States Senator; 

Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas; President 

of the Texas State Historical Association 



EDITED BY 
WALTER FLAVIUS McCALEB, Ph. D. 

Sometime Felloiv in History in the Uni-venity of Chicago 
WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

GEORGE P. GARRISON, Ph. D. 

Professor of History in the University of Texat 



NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Coptet RsMlved 

SEP S^i t906 

f% Ceoyrirnt Entry 

COPY B. // 



COPYRIGHT, 1906 
BY MOLLIE FORD REAGAN 



This volume is dedicated with reverential respect 

TO THE PATRIOTS 

who, in the council and on the field, pledged life and fortune 
to the Cause of the Confederate States of America ; 

TO THE DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY 

who, endowed with the self-sacrificing virtues of their noble 
mothers, are doing so much for the preservation and perpetua- 
tion of the true history of the causes and conduct of the War 
between the States ; and 

TO THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS 

upon whom devolves the grave duty of vindicating their fathers 
against the calumny of rebellion and treason, and upon whose 
wisdom and patriotism largely rests the hope of this great Re- 
public. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Editor's Preface 15 

Author's Preface 13 

Introduction 17 

Chapter 

I. Youth and Early Experiences 23 

11. The Cherokee Campaign 29 

III. Surveying Expeditions 37 

IV. Indian and Internal Troubles 44 

v. Lawyer and Legislator 51 

VI. In Congress 62 

VII. Reelection to Congress 72 

VIII. Causes of the War Between the States 83 

IX. Organization of the Confederate Govern- 
ment : 104 

X. The Confederate Post Office Department.... 124 

XI. The Struggle for Richmond 136 

XII. Cabinet and Other Questions 1461 

XIII. Hampton Roads Conference 166"^ 

XIV. The Campaigns of 1864 and 1865 180 

XV. The Surrender of Our Armies 196 

XVI. The President and Cabinet in Retreat 208 

XVII. Looking to the Future 225 

XVIII. Reconstruction and After 236 

XIX. In Retrospect 249 

Appendices 253 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Portrait of John H. Reagan Frontispiece 

Portrait of Jefferson Davis Facing page io6 

The First Confederate Cabinet Facing page 146 

*'FoRT Houston," the Home of Judge John 

H. Reagan, near Palestine, Texas Facing page 234 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

In offering to the public my Memoirs, it is proper for me to 
state the purposes which induced me to undertake their prepa- 
ration. First, my hope is that by example I may stimulate 
youthful readers to honorable aspirations ; and second, it is my 
desire to show by authentic documents, Confederate and Fed- 
eral, the justice of the cause of the late Confederate States. 
Subsidiary to these two purposes is one which I think has been 
partially fulfilled — to give a more or less connected record of 
the events of my own time. 

It is not the purpose of the author to revive the controversies 
of the past, but simply to perform what he believes to be a duty 
to a brave, self-sacrificing and patriotic people. My own record 
since the war, whether as a private citizen or as a State or 
Federal official, shows, I think, that I accepted in good faith 
the legitimate results of the war, and that I have constantly 
sought to promote the welfare of the whole country. It is my 
country — I am proud of it, and rejoice in its achievements. 
While at times I am somewhat disheartened by the apparent 
changes in the character and administration of the Federal Gov- 
ernment from what they were in my early political experience, 
I still look forward hopefully to the time when they shall be 
brought back to their original simplicity and purity. And I can- 
not avoid a somewhat painful solicitude as to the future of the 
growing conflict between labor and capital. 

With material at hand which would have required a number 
of volumes, I submit this one, for want of time and means to 
complete a more extended and systematic work,with a full knowl- 
edge of its imperfections. 

My endeavor has been to conform to the truth of history, 
and to make no truce with error by compromise. And while 



14 AUTHOR S PREFACE 

dealing to some extent with controverted questions, I try to be 
just and fair, invoking tiie charitable judgment of those who 
may read it. 

If a question should be made as to the propriety of my em- 
bracing in the book a number of my speeches and letters of the 
past, I offer as a reason for this that they present a living por- 
traiture of most important events, drawn when they were occur- 
ring, and are not an afterthought designed to sustain a theory. 
They convey a clearer idea of the events referred to than could 
be expected from statements made at this time in relation to 
them. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

It was with considerable trepidation that I undertook to edit 
Judge Reagan's manuscript. This was in part due to my great 
respect for his abihty and character, but above all to my fear 
that the inherent difficulties of the task would prove in a degree 
insuperable. 

Four months at Fort Houston in daily contact with the Nestor 
of Southern statesmen have only served to add to my apprecia- 
tion of the man, and therefore to impress me more deeply with 
the seriousness of my undertaking. His constructive genius for 
government, his whole-souled devotion to duty, his firm adher- 
ence to principle, his unswerving attachment to his friends, his 
intense belief in the rightfulness of the cause of the South, the 
solidarity of his achievements — all lead me to bow reverently 
before the summing up of so much of the labors of his life as is 
shown in this volume. 

As for the difficulties which were anticipated, I think it may 
be safely said that they have been in the main surmounted. It 
is due to the author and myself to state that the text of the 
work is Judge Reagan's; and that I edited it no further than 
was deemed necessary for clearness. My theory has been that 
the story and its telling should be his — that, in a sense, is the 
man. The stylistic qualities of rugged forcefulness, of incisive 
vernacular, in his writings, are indices of his nature. 

Texas, the South, the Union ought to be proud of the grand 
"Old Roman," as he has been called. Handicapped by poverty 
and lack of education he began the business of life in the wilds 
of Texas while it was still a Republic, and in time rose from 
surveyor to legislator, from district judge to Congressman, from 
Congressman to Postmaster-General of the Confederacy. The 
best of him was given to the "Lost Cause" — and there lies the 



16 EDITORS PREFACE 

heart of his Memoirs. His later career in the House and Senate 
of the United States was conspicuous in its many-sided activity, 
and his service as chairman of the Commerce Committee was 
characterized by an intense interest in the commercial welfare of 
the whole country. 

Not the least of the sacrifices which the Senator has made 
in responding to the call of the State was his resigning from 
the Senate to accept the post of chairman of the Texas Rail- 
road Commission. And here his public service ended. Truly 
may it be said that he is 

"One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 

Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, tho' right were worsted, wrong would triumph, 

Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake." 



INTRODUCTION 

The Civil War has been by no means an experience wholly 
evil for the South. Out of its wreck and ruin have come a 
clearer understanding and a deeper sense both of the strength 
and the weakness of Southern civilization, and it thus remains 
an invaluable lesson to all who are concerned in its results. 
One of the be^t things, however, that have come of it is the 
thoroughly tested character of some of the leaders in council 
and in the field on both sides during that period of storm 
and stress. This is a matter of supreme social consequence ; 
for the heroes of a people establish its standards of conduct and 
of aspiration. And one of the happiest results of the reconcilia- 
tion of North and South and the growing sense of harmony in 
the true interests and ideals of the sections is that pride in the 
achievements of the really great men whom the war brought 
to the front is no longer confined to one part of the United 
States for some and to another for the rest, but has become an 
uplifting influence that pervades the entire nation. 

Among those on whom the severe tests of the last half century 
have left the indubitable stamp of greatness is John H. Reagan. 
While yet living he had won a place among the foremost in the 
reverential regard of those who knew him ; and with the lapse 
of time, as the perspective grows clearer and his work is better 
understood, he must be seen in a still more favorable light. 
None was more unfaltering in his adherence to principle, none 
more consistent in his devotion to the popular interest or more 
effective in its support ; and, though his efforts often ended in 
failure, his strength and capacity for leadership are beyond 
question. 

But some will say that his most strenuous efforts were put 
forth to destroy the Union, and that the people of the nation 



18 INTRODUCTION 

cannot therefore join in doing- honor to hi« memory or com- 
mending- his conduct to the young men and boys of America 
as worthy of imitation. Such an argument, however, involves 
an assumption concerning his motives that is at once inaccurate 
and unfair. He loved the Union with all the warmth of his 
patriotic nature, and no man was further than he from seeking 
its dissolution as an end in itself. He would consent to dis- 
solve it only for the sake of what was to him a still higher 
ideal — the sovereignty of the States. Considering his point of 
view and the conditions under which his political philosophy 
took shape, there needs no elaborate disquisition on the con- 
stitutional law of the United States to show the injustice of 
regarding his attitude as treasonable. Nor should it be for- 
gotten that, when his theory of the nature of the Union, 
already weakened by natural economic and political tendencies 
toward centralization, went down before the strongest on the 
battlefield, he accepted the result in good faith and remained 
a loyal American citizen. To himself, this was no enforced 
conversion, but simply steadfastness to one of the prime articles 
of his old political creed. The fact which stands dominant in 
determining the significance of his career is that he was faithful 
to his convictions. No true man can be less ; and herein his 
example commends itself to all. 

Judge Reagan did not come of the aristocratic slave-holding 
class of the Old South, but was born and reared in comparative 
poverty. No strong bond, therefore, of material interest held 
him to the spot of his birth, and in early youth the search for 
larger opportunity carried him to Texas. What difficulties he 
had there to overcome, and how he achieved success in spite 
of them all, is clearly evident from his own narrative, which 
need not be anticipated here. 

Suffice it to say that his environment was such as strongly 
to develop his native instinct of rugged self-dependence, and 
this became one of his most prominent characteristics. He was 
always ready to take upon himself the burdens of others, but 
he sought no help in carrying his own. None ever accepted 



INTRODUCTION 19 

such responsibilities as fell to him with greater bravery and 
determination, or bore them in manlier fashion. It was no vain 
show of loyalty, but consistent obedience to the dictates of his 
heart and conscience that led him to ask, when he was captured 
along with President Davis, that he might share the fortunes of 
his fallen chief. How little of demagoguery or selfish ambition 
was in him is shown by his Fort Warren letter, whose distasteful 
advice to the people of Texas seemed at the time to have broken 
completely the hold of its writer upon them, and by his refusal 
to accept the governorship of the State by appointment of the 
Federal authorities during the period of Reconstruction. 

Judge Reagan died without an apology for his record, and in 
complete willingness to be judged thereby. The impartial ver- 
dict of history may find in it mistakes, but no cowardice or con- 
scious wrong. May his type of pure, robust, and strenuous 
manhood never fail among those for whom his work was done. 

George P. Garrison. 



MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 



MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 



CHAPTER I 
Youth and Early Experiences 

I was bom in Sevier County, Tennessee, on the 8th day of 
October, 1818, and was the first child of a family of six, 
five sons and one daughter. My father's name was Timothy 
R. Reagan ; my mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Lusk. 
Of the four lines of my ancestors, the Reagans were Irish, 
the Lusks, English ; the Robertses, Welsh, and the Schutzes, 
German. Each of these branches was living in the Amer- 
ican colonies prior to the Revolution. Members of each of 
these families came over the mountains into what is now 
Tennessee, then a part of the State of North Carolina. My 
great-grandfather, Timothy Reagan, w^as a soldier in the 
Revolution, and was seriously wounded at the battle of 
Brandywine. Later, he removed to what was then called the 
West and aided in the building of Lawson's Fort, on a site 
about four miles from the present town of Sevierville, Avhen 
the Indians still occupied that country. It was the first fort 
built in that quarter, now Sevier County; and my grand- 
father, Richard Reagan, was one of the first white children 
born there. My father and 1 were also born in the same 
neighborhood. 

In my youth, when not at school, — and I first attended 
Nancy Academy at Sevierville, — I worked in my father's 
tanyard ; and later, when his fortunes were changed, on his 
farm. My father became involved in financial troubles, and 
was unable to give his children such education as he had 



24 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

intended. When I was about sixteen years of age I under- 
took the task of securing an education, and began it by 
hiring myself to Major John Walker for one year at farm 
work, at nine dollars a month, payable in corn at two 
shillings a bushel. This corn I sold at twenty-five cents, 
which reduced my pay to but a little over seven dollars per 
month. With the proceeds of the sale of my corn I pur- 
chased clothing and books, which by working Saturdays, 
and mornings and evenings to pay for my board, enabled 
me to attend Boyd's Creek Academy two sessions. 

At the end of the second session John Brabson employed 
me to take a flatboat load of produce for him down the 
French Broad and Tennessee rivers to north Alabama. I 
was fortunate in finding a good market for the produce, and 
sold it and the boat. He then engaged me for twelve months 
to take charge of a large set of flouring and saw mills. The 
earnings of that year enabled me to attend the Marysville 
Seminary (now college) for two sessions. On returning to 
Sevier County my old employer. Major Walker, engaged 
me for a few months as salesman and bookkeeper in his 
country store at Fair Garden. In order to obtain more 
profitable employment to enable me to graduate from the 
Seminary, I went south, floating down the French Broad and 
Tennessee rivers in a flatboat to Decatur, Alabama. 

There a Mr. Bishop, with whom I had become acquainted, 
proposed to take me in partnership with him in the retail 
liquor business, he to furnish house, fixtures and liquors, and 
I to attend to sales, the profits to be divided equally between 
us. I declined his proposition, which would have yielded 
me a handsome income, because I did not wish to engage in 
that sort of business, or to be brought in contact with the 
people who for the most part frequent such places. 

From Decatur I took my first ride on a railroad to Tus- 
cumbia, Alabama ; thence, partly by stage coach, and partly 
on foot I made my way to Memphis, Tennessee, which was 
then (the winter of 1838) but a village of small houses 
scattered upon a bluff of the Mississippi River. From 



YOUTH AND EARLY EXPERIENCES 25 

Memphis I took deck passage on a passenger steamboat, 
and reached the city of Natchez with fifty cents in my 
pocket. I visited a number of business houses, seeking 
employment, but was told by those in authority that the 
cotton season was far advanced and that they needed no 
additional help. 

After tramping some time I came to the store of a gentle- 
man, who I afterwards learned had gone through such 
an experience as I was then having. He told me that it was 
too late in the season for me to expect to get employment 
as a clerk, but suggested that if I was qualified to teach, 
I might find a place with a Mrs. Perkins. I had with me 
letters from the president and professors of the Seminary 
recommending me as competent to teach; so I acted on his 
suggestion, and went to see her. On the way, when I had 
got out of the city, overcome by a feeling of helplessness, 
among strangers in a strange land, and without money 
enough to pay for a night's lodging, I sat down by the 
roadside and took a hearty cry. This seemed to relieve 
me. 

When I reached the home of Mrs. Perkins she told me 
she wanted a teacher, and had agreed with two or three of 
her neighbors that they should jointly employ one. She re- 
quested that I should go to Mr. Jackson, a neighbor, and that 
he would make the necessary arrangements with me. I 
called on him that evening, and offered to show him the 
testimonials as to my qualifications to teach. He said he 
did not care to look at them ; that he had never known any 
one to oft"er bad testimonials. I told him I was without 
money and that it was important to me to know as soon 
as might be convenient, whether I was to get employment. 
He suggested that I should remain with him that night, 
and he would see what could be done. I may here state that 
he was a brother to Governor Jackson of the State of Mis- 
souri ; and, as he told me, he had gone through an interesting 
experience. He said that he and two others, boys of about 
his age, had been bound out to learn the trade of plasterers 



26 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and painters in St. Louis, but that they had run away. He 
had begun Hfe in Natchez as a brickmaker; had prospered 
and married. His wife was a lady of considerable fortune, 
I learned afterward. 

The next morning he told me they would employ me 
as teacher, but that if I preferred he could do better for 
me, and would give me five hundred dollars to oversee 
his men tmtil the end of the year. This seemed to me very 
liberal, but I stated to him that I had no experience in 
the management of a farm, or of negroes. He said he would 
be at home all the time, and that if I needed advice I might 
call on him. I accepted his offer and found him to be a very 
agreeable man. During the following April, however, the 
men complained of not having meat enough; whereupon I 
called Mr. Jackson's attention to their wants. He declined 
to satisfy them, and I refused to continue in his service. 

I left Natchez on a Red River steamboat, intending to 
see General Thomas of Alexandria, Louisiana, who, like 
myself, was a native of Sevier County, Tennessee, and who 
was an extensive sugar planter, in the hope that he might 
aid me in securing a position. On the boat I met with a 
Colonel Strode who lived in Nacogdoches, Texas. He as- 
certained that I was seeking employment, and offered me 
eight hundred dollars a year if I would go to Nacogdoches 
and sell goods for him, stating that he was a merchant. I 
was pleased with this offer, and agreed to go to Texas 
instead of stopping at Alexandria. There were a number 
of people on the boat going to Texas — a Mr. Griffith and his 
family, the Anglins, H. Clay and Dick Davis, and others. 
We went together overland from Natchitoches toward the 
new Republic, which had so recently won its independence. 
We reached the Sabine River, and camped on the bank, 
and there met a gentleman by the name of Patterson, who 
lived at Nacogdoches. He learned from the company that 
I was going to Texas to sell goods for Colonel Strode, 
with whom he was acquainted. He thereupon informed 
me that I had been deceived by Colonel Strode ; that it was 



YOUTH AND EARLY EXPERIENCES 27 

true he had a very small assortment of goods at his country- 
home, but did not have eight hundred dollars worth, and 
was a man without credit. I called the Colonel's attention 
to this statement, and he got out of the false position by 
seeming to get mad. 

I thought I would return, but my comrades, and especially 
Mr. H. Clay Davis, urged me, as I was on the border of 
Texas, to go on and see something of the country. So I 
crossed the Sabine River at Myrick's Ferry on the 29th of 
May, 1839, having with me a few articles of clothing tied 
up in a handkerchief, and a ten-dollar bill on the Holly 
Springs Bank of Mississippi, which was worth but fifty cents 
on the dollar — practically my all in the world. At this time 
there were probably not one hundred thousand white people 
in the Republic. There were but twenty-six States in the 
Union; there was not a railroad west of the Alleghany 
Mountains ; there was but one in Georgia, and but a short 
line, forty-four miles long, around the Muscle Shoals of the 
Tennessee River. The postage on letters of a half-ounce 
weight, between Texas and the United States, was almost 
prohibitory. The inland postage on such a letter in the 
United States was twenty-five cents; the ship postage (for 
our mail matter came largely by way of the Gulf of Mexico) 
was twenty-five cents ; and the inland postage in Texas was 
twenty-five cents, making a total charge of seventy-five cents. 

In Shelby County I met the Hon. Isaac W. Burton, a 
senator of the Republic of Texas, who, after making kindly 
inquiries of me, invited me to the home of Mr. Martin Lacy, 
his father-in-law, where he lived in the western part of 
Nacogdoches County. I went on foot to Mr. Lacy's, stop- 
ping for the night at the residence of a Mr. Nations, three 
miles from San Augustine, While at supper he came in 
from town and stated that a man had been killed there that 
day. I passed through San Augustine the next morning, 
and stopped for the night at the residence of Colonel Steel, 
ten or twelve miles west of the town. I was sitting on his 
porch with two or three others, when Colonel Steel reached 



28 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

home from San Augustine and announced the kilHng of two 
more men there. I made a sort of invokmtary exclamation 
of surprise that three men should have been killed in two 
days. Colonel Steel said to me, "Young man, where are you 
from?" I answered that I was from East Tennessee. 
"Well," he said, "this may sound strange to one from that 
country; but from the example of murders in this community 
not much harm comes; in these cases one desperado kills 
another." Such was my introduction into the Republic of 
Texas. 



CHAPTER II 

The Cherokee Campaign 

During the month of June, 1839, Mr. Lacy, who was the 
Indian agent for the Cherokee tribe of Indians, then occupy- 
ing the territory now known as Cherokee and Smith counties, 
was the bearer of a communication to Chief Bowles from 
Mirabeau B. Lamar, who had been inaugurated President, 
December 10, 1838. That communication recited that in 
1836 the Cherokees had assembled on the San Antonio road, 
east of the Neches River, — when the people of Texas were 
flying to escape General Santa Anna's invading army, — for 
the purpose of attacking the Texans if Santa Anna should be 
successful; that the Cherokees had massacred a number of 
white people, and had stolen the horses of the Texas people. 
It further recited that in the previous February General Ed- 
ward Burleson had captured some Mexicans and Cherokee 
Indians on the upper Colorado on their way from Mexico to 
Chief Bowles, carrying to him a commission as colonel in the 
Mexican army, with instructions for his cooperation with 
a Mexican force which was to invade Texas the coming 
spring, and also taking with them powder and lead for 
Bowles.'^ President Lamar said in his message that Texas 
could not permit such an enemy to live in the heart of the Re- 
public, and that the Cherokees must go to the north of the 
Red River, peaceably if they would, by compulsion if they 
must. It was also stated in this message that the President 
had appointed six men with authority to value the immovable 
property of the Indians, — not lands, but the improvements, — 
and to pay them for these in money ; and that they might take 

*This affair is generally known as "Cordova's Rebellion." 



30 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

all their movable property with them in safety. I knew some 
of these commissioners; among them was Judge Noble, a 
most estimable man, then of NacogdocH^ but who after- 
wards lived in the city of Houston. 

It is proper for me to say that this statement as to the con- 
tents of the communication from President Lamar to Chief 
Bowles has been criticised. I understand, however, that my 
account is sustained by documents in the archives of Texas. 
Be this as it may, the message read to Bowles was in sub- 
stance as I have related. The Hon. W. G. W. Jowers and I 
accompanied the agent, and Dr. Jowers has confirmed my 
statement of this case; and it is corroborated by those fa- 
miliar with the times. The attitude of the Cherokees during 
the Mexican invasion of 1836 was common and current in- 
formation with those dwelling in east Texas. The stealing 
of horses from the whites was admitted by Bowles at the 
conference, but he claimed that the outrages were perpetrated 
by wild Indians who came through his territory. However, 
the practice of the Indians had been made clear by the mas- 
sacre of the Killough and Williams families in 1837, in the 
Saline settlement. This stirred the whole Republic. 

But as to the interview itself. When we reached the resi- 
dence of Bowles, he invited the agent, the interpreter, Jowers, 
and myself to a fine spring near his house, where he and 
others seated themselves on a fallen tree. The President's 
message was then read and interpreted by one Cordray, a 
half-breed Mexican. In the conversation which followed, 
Bowles stated that he could not make a definite answer as to 
abandoning the country until he could consult his chiefs and 
head men ; so it was agreed that he might have time for such 
a consultation. If I remember correctly, about ten days was 
the limit set. 

At the expiration of the time. Dr. Jowers and I again ac- 
companied Mr. Lacy and his interpreter to the residence of 
Bowles. In the conversation which ensued, Bowles stated 
that his young men were for war, and that they believed that 



THE CHEROKEE CAMPAIGN 31 

they could whip the whites. He said all the council was for 
war except himself and Big- Mush, one of his chiefs. He said 
he knew that in the end the whites would whip them, but, he 
added, "It will cost you a bloody frontier war for ten years." 
He also said that while he did not concur in the judgment of 
his tribe, he had led them many years since separating from 
the main tribe of the Cherokees, first in Lost Prairie, Arkan- 
sas, and afterwards at the Three Forks of the Trinity, the 
country now surrounding the city of Dallas. He said he had 
tried to hold that country for his tribe, but that other Indians 
claimed it as a common hunting ground, and that in the 
course of three years they had killed about a third of his war- 
riors ; that then, with the consent of Mexico, he had settled 
near the Spanish fort at Nacogdoches. He no doubt had the 
consent of the Mexican authorities, as he says, to settle there ; 
but he did not thereby acquire the sovereignty of the soil; 
was simply a settler without title. He also declared that Gen- 
eral Houston had confirmed their right to that country by 
treaty. 

There was this much foundation for the statement : The 
General Council of the provisional government of Texas had 
empowered General Houston and Colonel Forbes to treat 
with the Cherokees in order to keep them quiet and to pre- 
vent their cooperation with the Mexican army, and on Feb- 
ruary 22, 1836, they did agree to a treaty; but when it was 
laid before the convention which assembled March i, 1836, 
for the purpose of framing a constitution for the Republic of 
Texas, the treaty was rejected. So that the Cherokees were 
still merely tenants at the will of the sovereign and without 
title. 

During this conference Chief Bowles told Mr. Lacy that 
he had been in correspondence, for many years, with John 
Ross, chief of the principal tribe of the Cherokees, with a 
view to uniting the two tribes and going to California, out of 
reach of the white people, and offered to show the corre- 
spondence. But Mr. Lacy waived the production of it. 



32 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Bowles asked time for his people to make and gather their 
crops, but was informed by Mr. Lacy that he had no au- 
thority to act outside of the letter of the President. Bowles 
said if he fought, the whites would kill him ; and if he refused 
to fight, his own people would kill him. He added that to 
him personally it mattered little, that he was eighty-three 
years old, and by the laws of nature could live but little 
longer ; but that he felt a great interest in the future of his 
wives (he had three of them) and his children. His tribe, 
he said, had always been true to him, and though he differed 
with them in opinion, he would stand by them. The council 
ended with the understanding that war was to follow. 

These conferences produced a strong impression on my 
mind, for two reasons. The first was, that neither the agent 
nor the chief could read or write, except that Mr. Lacy could 
sign his name mechanically ; and neither could speak the lan- 
guage of the other. The second was the frankness and dig- 
nity with which the negotiations were carried on — neither 
tried to disguise his purpose nor to mislead the other. 

The two armies now began to assemble. General Rusk's 
regiment moved up within about six miles of where the 
Indians were in camp under Chief Bowles, and the leaders 
soon agreed on a neutral line, which was not to be crossed 
by either side; and neither party was to move without 
giving notice to the other. The Texans were negotiating 
for time so that General Edward Burleson's regiment of 
regulars and Landrum's regiment of Red-Landers might 
come up. Bowles was seeking delay in order to enable the 
warriors coming from other tribes to reach the front. After 
the arrival of the regiments of Burleson and Landrum, the 
question arose as to who was to command the whole. The 
volunteers wanted Rusk and the regulars wanted Burleson. 
These two officers refused to antagonize each other, and by 
common consent it was agreed that Kelsey H. Douglass, the 
commander of the militia of that part of the Republic, should 
assume the responsibility. 



THE CHEROKEE CAMPAIGN 33 

About sunrise on the morning of July 15, John Bowles, a 
son of Chief Bowles, accompanied by Fox Field, a prominent 
half-breed, rode into our camp under a flag of truce, and noti- 
fied General Albert Sidney Johnston, the Secretary of War 
of the Republic, who was with us, that he was instructed by 
his father to report that they, the Cherokees, would break 
camp that day and move to the west of the Neches River. 
General Johnston thanked him, observing that Chief Bowles 
had acted honorably in giving notice of his move, and re- 
quested him to say to his father that the Texans would 
accordingly give pursuit. Bowles and Field were then es- 
corted half a mile beyond our pickets. 

After the Texas forces had crossed the Neches, our officers 
sent forward some scouts with instructions to the effect that 
if they came up with the Indians they were to open fire at 
long range, without exposing themselves too much, so as to 
keep the Texans advised of the position of the enemy. 

The Indians occupied the bed of a dry creek running from 
the north to the south, and then turning to the east. Just 
above this bend there was a prairie bottom nearly half a mile 
long, to the east of that part of the creek running south ; and 
commencing near the lower end of the prairie and extending 
north, parallel with the creek, was a thick growth of hack- 
berry bushes and rattan vines, some three hundred yards 
long. When the firing of our scouts was heard, Burleson's 
regiment crossed the creek below the bend where it ran to the 
east, and moved forward to the rear of the line of the In- 
dians, who were posted in the creek bed above the bend. 
Rusk's regiment, to which I belonged, moved forward to op- 
posite the lower end of the prairie just mentioned, and there 
wheeled to the right and in front of the line of the enemy. As 
the Hon. David S. Kaufman and I, riding side by side, were 
making this turn, an Indian rose up probably eighty yards 
off, and fired. Kaufman and I wheeled to the left and chased 
him until he jumped into the creek. We were then at the 
lower end of the hackberry and rattan thicket. Instead of 



34 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

turning back, not knowing the length of the thicket, we 
headed our horses between it and the creek, and ran the 
gantlet of the fire of the Indians at short range the whole 
length of it; but neither of us was injured, nor were our 
horses. Just as we were turning the head of the thicket, Dr. 
Rogers of Nacogdoches approached — he belonged to Rusk's 
command — and was hit by three shots and killed. Others 
were coming on at the same time, among them Colonel Crane 
of Montgomery County, who stopped his horse near us. I 
cried out to him, "Colonel, don't stop here!" At that mo- 
ment a shot passed through both his arms and his body. He 
said to me, "Call Robbins" ; who, I believe, was his brother- 
in-law. Robbins came promptly, and Colonel Crane rode by 
him for two or three rods, telling him what messages to bear 
his family, and then fell from his horse, quite dead. 

In this engagement we lost but six men killed and a few 
wounded. The Indian loss was much greater, and they re- 
treated ; we learned, however, that but a part of their warriors 
were engaged. We camped on the battlefield, and the next 
day again encountered the enemy in full force near the 
Neches. 

Chief Bowles displayed great courage in these battles. In 
the second engagement he remained on the field on horse- 
back, wearing a military hat, silk vest, and handsome sword 
and sash which had been presented to him by President 
Houston. He was a magnificent picture of barbaric man- 
hood and was very conspicuous during the whole battle, be- 
ing the last to leave the field when the Indians retreated. His 
horse, however, was now disabled, and he dismounted, after 
having been wounded himself. As he walked away he was 
shot in the back and fell. Then, as he sat up with his face 
toward us, I started to him with a view to secure his surren- 
der. At the same time my captain, Bob Smith, with a pistol 
in his hand, ran toward him from farther down the line. We 
reached him at the same instant, and realizing what was im- 
minent, I called, "Captain, don't shoot him." But he fired, 
striking Bowles in the head, and killjng him instantly. 



THE CHEROKEE CAMPAIGN 35 

I had been so impressed with the manhness and dignity of 
Chief Bowles in the consuhations which preceded the war, 
and with his conspicuous bravery in battle, that I did not 
want to see him killed, and would have saved his life if I 
could. 

Soon after this campaign, I met a Mr. Bowles, a commis- 
sion merchant of Shreveport, Louisiana, who told me he be- 
lieved he and the chief were of the same family. He said that 
during the American Revolution a family named Bowles, 
living in Georgia, was massacred excepting one child, a very 
small boy, who was taken into captivity. While Chief Bowles 
was somewhat tanned in color, he did not seem to me to be 
an Indian. He had neither the hair nor the eyes of an Indian. 
His eyes were gray, his hair was of a dirty sandy color; and 
his was an English head ; but he did not speak the English 
language. At the time of his death, in spite of his great age, 
he seemed strong and vigorous. 

In this connection I ought to say that in this battle the 
Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, and most of the wild tribes 
of Indians on our frontier had their warriors with the Chero- 
kees. If I may be excused, I will mention an incident per- 
sonal to myself which occurred during the second encounter. 
Our line of battle was formed on the crest of a ridge ; and 
there was a gradual descent from this to the long ravine oc- 
cupied by the Indians. The Delaware village was on fire in 
our rear, black columns of smoke rolling over our line, and 
the skirmishers of the two armies were engaged between the 
lines. The scene was a grand one. We were ordered to tell 
off by sixes, every sixth man to hold the horses. It fell to 
my lot to be the sixth. However, I tied my horse to a bush 
and told the others of our squad that they would have to do 
likewise. Captain Smith was passing in front of us and the 
men reported me as refusing to hold their horses. The cap- 
tain thereupon ordered me to the front and asked if it was 
true that I refused to hold the horses. 

"I do, Captain." I answered him. 



36 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

"Sir, I will have you court-martialed," he said. 

To this I rejoined, "Captain, that will be after the battle is 
over." 

I heard no more of the court-martial. On the other hand, 
the morning after the second battle, General Albert Sidney- 
Johnston, who was then Secretary of War of the Republic, 
sent for me to go to headquarters, and when I had reached 
there advised me that the Acting President had directed him 
to offer me a commission as second lieutenant in the regular 
army of the Republic. Judge David G. Burnet was the Vice- 
President and Acting President, because of President La- 
mar's absence from the Republic, for the recovery of his 
health, under authority of a resolution of Congress. I went 
to General Nat Smith, in whose command in Tennessee I was 
a volunteer in the Florida war in 1836. He said the regular 
army of Texas consisted of but a single regiment ; that the 
pay was poor (being at that time in depreciated "redbacks") ; 
that unless there should be a good many casualties I might be 
near middle age before reaching a captaincy; that there was 
a fine field for enterprise for a young man in Texas, and that 
he would not think such a position desirable. So I declined 
the appointment. 



CHAPTER III 
Surveying Expeditions 

About the close of the Cherokee campaign I was stricken 
down with fever and had a relapse or two, followed by many 
months of fever and ague. My friend, Major Burton, had to 
be away from home attending the first session of Congress 
at Austin, the newly selected capital. His family being some- 
what exposed on the frontier, he got me to remain with them 
during his absence. This time I improved by studying sur- 
veying, having already a good knowledge of arithmetic, and 
some knowledge of algebra and geometry and trigonometry. 
In November of that year I did some surveying in what is 
now Angelina County, and was appointed deputy surveyor 
for that part of the Nacogdoches land district which is now 
Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt, Rockwall, Rains, Wood, 
the west half of Upshur, the north half of Dallas, and the 
south part of Hunt counties. I surveyed a great deal in what 
are now the counties of Henderson, Kaufman and Van 
Zandt ; and during the year 1840 I was appointed deputy sur- 
veyor for that part of the Houston land district which is now 
the county of Anderson, and part of the county of Hender- 
son. To show the conditions under which my work was 
done, I may say that, while surveying in what is now An- 
gelina County, I was having a shaking ague every day. When 
the chill came on, I would stop and lie on the ground until 
the fever rose, and then I would proceed with my work. In 
this condition I made surveys of a good many tracts of land. 

After finishing that work, with the assistance of W. Y. 
Lacy, in December, 1839, I organized a company of twenty- 
eight men for a surveying expedition in the district to which 



38 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

I had been appointed on the upper Sabine and Trinity rivers, 
far out from the white settlements, and in the hunting ground 
of hostile Indians. In the northern part of what is now 
Smith County we found ourselves near a band of them. They 
moved off to the west and we followed that evening, close 
after them. We camped at night and took their trail the 
next day. About noon we came to a place where they had 
stopped to roast some meat and acorns, which were still hot 
when we arrived. The pursuit continued until we came to 
where they had made a stand at the creek near the Grand Sa- 
line. A few shots were exchanged; one of my men was 
slightly wounded; one of the Indians was killed and two 
others wounded, but these made their escape in a canebrake 
during a heavy shower of rain. Some two or three hundred 
yards farther on we saw some horses with packs on them, 
and supposed the main stand of the Indians was to be made 
there ; but on reaching the spot we found that they had dis- 
appeared in the cane, and we took possession of eight of their 
horses and packs. The rain continuing, we went into camp. 
It rained all the evening and all night and all the forenoon 
of the next day. The ground became so boggy that we got 
our horses onto the stiff, black soil of the creek bottom, which 
was then overflowed from hill to hill. As the creek came 
from the west, the direction we ought to go, I told my com- 
pany we could march up the creek as we should be in the 
water anyway, and this we did during the balance of the 
afternoon. I had a German doctor along, and, a bend in the 
creek bringing the channel very close to our line of march, 
though all was a sea of water, in a spirit of levity I hallooed 
to him to turn to the left and take up the opening which was 
caused by the creek. I supposed he would know it was the 
channel. When he turned toward it I called to my men to 
stop him ; but he and his horse went out of sight under the 
water for a moment and he came up on the opposite side of 
the creek. It was nearing night and fortunately a rocky 
point of dry land jutted in toward the creek a little ahead of 



SURVEYING EXPEDITIONS 39 

US. The doctor reached that; and with some difficulty, by 
cutting down some trees, we got across to him. He was in a 
bad humor, and said I had attempted to drown him. I tried 
to explain to him that I spoke as a matter of fun, and made 
the best apology I could. But he said he was going back, that 
he would go no farther with me. The brush with the In- 
dians, the prolonged rain, and wading all the evening in the 
water had discouraged most of the men, and it soon appeared 
that they were tired and wanted to return. I said to them 
that we were more than half way to where we were to com- 
mence work, and that I should regret much to give up the trip 
without accomplishing anything. I then proposed that those 
who were willing to go with me should step out. Four or 
five responded. I observed that we were enough for the 
work, and that by going on foot and doing the most of our 
traveling in the night we should be less subject to attack then 
with the company and horses we had. I instructed those not 
going with me to keep out pickets by night and videttes by 
day, to take the captured property with them and return. 

Those of us who went on took a blanket apiece, some 
"cole" flour*, meat and coffee, two or three tin cups, the com- 
pass, chain, field book and hatchet, and left the others about 
sundown for the west. In a few days we reached what is now 
known as the upper waters of Cedar Creek, supposing it to 
be the East Fork of the Trinity, and my field notes and the 
patents of the land I then surveyed so call it. When we dis- 
covered indications of the near presence of Indians we would 
change the field of our work ; finally, however, for want of 
provisions we had to abandon it altogether, and in making a 
sort of exploring expedition to the southwest, after traveling 



'•'"Cole'' flour was made in this way : common ashes were sifted into a 
pot or kettle and heated until the ashes boiled like plaster of paris ; 
shelled corn was poured into the boiling ashes, and stirred until the 
grain could be broken between the fingers. It was then poured out into 
a sheet and sifted to separate the ashes from the corn. The corn was 
then ground (we used steel mills) into meal, and it was ready for use. 
It was eaten dry or stirred in water or made into mush, and its use was 
very common in the early days of Texas. 



40 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

a part of the night, we found the next morning that we were 
in the midst of the camping ground of the Indians. We lay- 
concealed in the bed of a dry creek all day and at night made 
our way out. We reached the settlements very nearly starved. 
I had an attack of the ague and fever every day during this 
trip. 

I did a great deal of surveying in that county during the 
spring and summer of 1840. On my return to Nacogdoches, 
w^here my field notes were to be returned to the office of the 
county surveyor, I was stricken down with fever and lay 
about eight weeks in bed, part of the time unconscious. I 
had made out my field notes, leaving blanks for the descrip- 
tion of the certificates to which they were to be applied, and 
when I was taken ill, left them in charge of Murray Orton, 
the collector of customs at Nacogdoches, with directions to 
keep them until I got well or died. If I had been well enough 
to use them, I could have secured land sufficient to have been 
of very great value to me in the future ; but he surrendered 
them to a man he supposed to be one of my best friends, and 
when I became convalescent I found this man had appropri- 
ated them, having returned them to the county surveyor's 
office. The upshot of it was that I was in debt for my hotel 
bill and for my doctor's bill, and to the extent of sixteen or 
eighteen hundred dollars to those who had been with me, 
and I had nothing. 

As soon as I was able to ride, I gave my notes for my hotel 
and doctor's bills, and went to see the men to whom I was 
indebted. I told them what had occurred, and said to them 
that if they would go with me I thought I could make enough 
to pay them. To John H. Irby, my largest creditor, I owed 
four or five hundred dollars. He said that he knew all about 
the matter and did not blame me, and that they would go 
with me again, but that it was useless for me to suppose that 
I could pay all my indebtedness. 

I left Nacogdoches early in October of 1840 for my field 
of operations, and did not return to the settlement until late 



SURVEYING EXPEDITIONS 41 

in the following April, during which time the only house I 
saw was what was called King's Fort, which was held by 
four or five men ; that was where the town of Kaufman now 
is. During the winter the provisions and the clothes of the 
men gave out. It was decided that they should return to the 
settlement to secure these necessaries, while I was to remain 
during their absence at King's Fort. 

We separated near where the town of Wills Point is now, 
the men going south and I alone to the southwest. We knew 
that there were hostile Indians in the country, and I had 
some thirty or forty miles to go alone. We parted a little 
after the hour of noon, each to go his way. It was the first 
time I ever had a full realization of what solitude is — I can- 
not describe it as I felt it. I had to go some distance in a 
prairie, then some eight miles through timber, and lastly 
through another stretch of prairie to the fort. I aimed to 
get through the timber while it was still dark and to keep 
dowij the edge of it to the trail which led to the fort, hoping 
in that way to escape the Indians and to reach the fort by 
morning. It rained all the latter part of the afternoon, 
and in the timber during the night, my horse bogging 
a great deal, I dismounted and led him. It was very dark, 
and after groping for some time I found myself where I had 
been at an earlier hour. There was no moon nor stars and 
nothing by which to keep my course, so I stopped. My gun 
and one pistol were wet. I fired my dry pistol into the under 
side of a leaning decayed black-jack, which set it on fire. I 
tied my horse, spread a blanket over the limb of a tree for 
shelter, made a fire, wrapped the two blankets, wet as they 
were, around me, and with my saddle for a pillow lay down 
in my wet clothes and went to sleep. When I awoke before 
day, one of the fiercest northers I ever felt was blowing. My 
body was warm enough, but my head and feet were cold. I 
found everything was freezing and debated with myself 
whether I should lie still and risk the blankets' freezing so 
as to imprison me, or break out of them and risk freezing 



42 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

myself. I took the latter chance. I looked for wood to make 
a better fire, but could not find it. I threw the blankets over 
me and stood over the little fire I had, making such efforts 
as I could to keep warm. By daylight it had cleared off and 
the ground was covered with the spewed up ice. I managed 
to saddle my horse, and made my way to the westward. I 
came to the Kaufman prairie, at what was afterwards known 
as Beck's Mound. From there I could see King's Fort ten or 
twelve miles to the southwest, and I headed for it. I became 
after a time so cold that I dismounted to walk for exercise. 
I soon found that my feet were being cut by the ice and were 
bleeding, my moccasins and socks not protecting them very 
well. I remounted, and tried by swinging my arms and hal- 
looing to keep up the circulation to prevent freezing. I struck 
the trail leading to the fort at Cottonwood Creek, about four 
miles away. By this time, however, I could no longer exer- 
cise or guide my horse. He took the trail himself and carried 
me to the fort, stopping at the gate. I could not speak or act. 
though still conscious. I knew where I was. Mr. John Ford, 
happening to come to the gate, saw me, took in the situation, 
called others and I was carried inside. The men started to 
take me to a block-house where they had a fire ; but my old 
friend Charles Gilmore told them that would not do. So they 
took me to a block-house where there was no fire. Mr. Gil- 
more had, for some purpose, made a large cedar tub, which 
they filled with water from the spring and put me in it, 
clothes and all. After a while I was thawed enough to speak, 
when they put me to bed before a fire. If I had not been 
thawed out as I was, I certainly would have lost my life. The 
skin on my face, neck, arms, and legs came to look as though 
it had been scalded. There were no medicines in camp, though 
the men had some bear's oil with which they greased the parts 
that were burst, and I had for a good many days a burning 
fever. So I know what it is to be almost frozen to death ; I 
had passed the state of pain some time before reaching the 
fort. 



SURVEYING EXPEDITIONS 43 

After finishing my work in the spring I returned to the set- 
tlement in the latter part of April. The first house we came 
to was that of Mason Avant, some four miles north of Fort 
Houston, where I now live. On approaching the house we 
heard the crowing of chickens. I thought it wonderfully- 
strange that I had never appreciated the music in the crowing 
of a chicken before. And when w^e got to the house Mrs. 
Avant came out and met us. I had not seen a woman for 
about six months and I said to her that she was the prettiest 
one I had ever seen. 

Without giving details, within a year I had paid all my 
debts, and had more demands for my service as surveyor 
than I could meet. In my first surveying expedition in the 
upper Trinity country, we found little or no game. This had 
been the hunting ground of the Indians, and the animals of 
every description had been killed or driven out. Later, when 
that country became neutral ground between the Indians and 
the whites, game became abundant. I have seen at a single 
view wild horses, buffalo, deer and antelope. Wild turkeys 
were plentiful. We then had no trouble in killing all the 
game we needed. And before that country was settled 
up, and trampled over and grazed on by domestic animals, it 
produced in wonderful abundance and in great variety the 
most beautiful flowers. I have seen mile after mile a wilder- 
ness of color. 



CHAPTER IV 
Indian and Internal Troubles 

In 1841 I served as a private in Colonel Jim Smith's regi- 
ment, which aided in driving the hostile Indians from the 
Cross Timbers. We crossed the Trinity River where the city 
of Dallas now is, two years before any white people lived 
there. The Indians were on Village Creek, about ten miles 
east of where Fort Worth now stands. This time, however, 
there was no fighting. 

In 1842, while I was absent from home, I was elected cap- 
tain of a company of militia, and was also elected a justice of 
the peace for the precinct in which I lived. And in that year 
I was married to a widow, Mrs. Martha Music, a noble- 
hearted woman, who survived our marriage only about two 
years. In 1843 the war of the factions, known as Regulators 
and Moderators, in Shelby County became so serious that 
President Houston ordered out the militia of some of the 
neighboring counties to suppress it. I was elected to the com- 
mand of the company from Nacogdoches County, which was 
assembled for this purpose, but by the time we reached the 
border of Shelby County the President had succeeded in se- 
curing a suspension of hostilities, and we were ordered to 
return to our homes. 

On account of the active and aggressive hostility of Mex- 
ico, and of the invasion of Texas in 1842, a strong feeling 
grew up in favor of retaliatory measures, and the Congress 
of Texas passed a law providing for an offensive war against 
the Mexicans. Among the raids of that year on Texas was 
that of the Mexican General Woll. He captured San An- 
tonio, made prisoners of the judge, — the district court then 



INDIAN AND INTERNAL TROUBLES 45 

being in session, — the officers of the court, and the members 
of the bar, sacked the city and carried away the court 
archives. 

President Houston vetoed the bill providing for the inva- 
sion of Mexico, because of its impracticability. He told me 
that General Andrew Jackson wrote him a most gratifying 
letter on account of his veto message, emphasizing approval 
of that part of it which assigned as one of the reasons for the 
veto, the fact that the bill provided that he (Houston) should 
command the forces in person, which he declared in his mes- 
sage would be a dangerous precedent. 

General Memucan Hunt was then Adjutant-General of the 
Republic. He favored the invasion of Mexico and wrote to 
General William O. Butler of Kentucky to come and join him 
in the movement. General Butler came, whereupon General 
Hunt issued his order requiring the captains of all the militia 
companies of the Republic to report through the proper chan- 
nels the number of men capable of bearing arms in their re- 
spective companies, with tabulated statements of the number 
and description of arms and military supplies. And he and 
General Butler made a partial canvass of the Republic on 
horseback in behalf of the proposed enterprise. An order was 
issued for a two days' drill of the officers of the Nacogdoches 
regiment, on the 2d and 3d of July, preparatory to a brigade 
review on the 4th. 

On the assembling of the officers of the regiment at Nacog- 
doches on the 2d of July, our colonel. Jack Todd, a great In- 
dian fighter, did not attempt to drill the company. About the 
only word of command he knew was "charge." Lieut. -Col. 
Wade, a San Jacinto soldier, knew something of the drill, 
and gave the company some instructions; but Major Henry 
Connor would not attempt it. Wade then invited the captains, 
all of them I believe, except myself, and also some of the 
lieutenants to drill the company; some of them made poor 
attempts at it, but most of them declined. Colonel Wade was 
about to resume the command when I stepped forward. He 



46 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

excused himself for not calling on me by saying that I was in 
the rear rank and that he had not seen me. I had no doubt 
that he had a better reason, for I was dressed in a buckskin 
hunting shirt, with foxed breeches and a dilapidated hat, and 
wore moccasins. In assuming command I first carried the 
company through the manual of arms, — no other had at- 
tempted that, — and the men requested me to repeat it, 
which I did. I then instructed them as to facing, so that how' 
ever often they might have to change face, the left heel would 
remain in the same place ; and also in the lock step in march- 
ing, and told them off in platoons and sections, and for some 
time carried them through most of the company evolutions 
described in Scott's Tactics, with which I was familiar. I 
need hardly add that I was at once looked upon with suspi- 
cion by the men, who supposed me to be in disguise, and who 
inquired whether I had come to Texas to build churches. 

Perhaps I ought to explain that my knowledge of military 
affairs was gained very early. In my youth the militia of 
Tennessee was well organized and the most respectable citi- 
zens w^ere officers ; the regimental and battalion muster days 
were the occasions for patriotic displays ; and the boys, too 
young to muster, followed the drum and fife with delight. 
Afterward, when I was in my teens, I became a member of a 
volunteer compan3% which was often drilled. In 1836 I vol- 
unteered in General Nat Smith's regiment for the Florida 
war. A great uncle of mine, who had been in the war of 
1 81 2, was made orderly-sergeant of my company. He was 
poorly qualified for his duties, and got me to make up his 
muster rolls, reports and requisitions, which familiarized me 
with those duties. 

On the occasion of this reunion I had made the tabulated 
report required by the order of the adjutant-general, and the 
officers were pleased with it. Colonel Bob Smith, who had 
been my captain in the Cherokee campaign, was the colonel 
of the regiment. At the brigade review on the 4th of July 
he requested me to act as adjutant of the regiment. I de- 



INDIAN AND INTERNAL TROUBLES 47 

clined on the ground that I could not appear on horseback in 
my unmilitary clothes. He said he had anticipated that and 
had got the best uniform in the town for me. I again declined 
on the ground that I did not wish to appear in borrowed 
plumage. He then requested me to take command of the 
company on the right, which I consented to do. 

The plan of invading Mexico failed. In the summer of 
1843 I received a letter from General Houston, the President 
of the Republic, — I had been acquainted with his family in 
Blount County, Tennessee, — requesting me to join him and 
his commissioners at Crockett, on the 4th of July, and pilot 
them to Grapevine Spring, some twenty-five or thirty miles 
northwest of where the town of Dallas now is, where, 
through his agents, he had arranged to make treaties of peace 
with the several tribes of wild Indians then living on the 
frontier of the Republic. I met them as requested, this invi- 
tation coming from the fact that as campaigner and surveyor 
I had become acquainted with that country. Fort Houston 
was then the outside settlement of whites in that direction. 

On our way the question came up about his having been 
challenged to a duel by several of the prominent men of the 
Republic. I mentioned that I had not understood how he 
avoided meetings with them, as they were all men of high 
character. He replied that, if I had noticed, he never de- 
clined to meet any of them because of lack of character ; that 
he sometimes treated their messages with levity, and in one 
way or another avoided a meeting. He said it was not neces- 
sary for him to engage in a duel to establish his character for 
courage, — that had been tested on the field of honor, and in 
battle, of which he bore the scars. He had had an affair of 
honor with General White of Nashville, Tennessee, and had 
been severely wounded at the battle of the Horseshoe and in 
the battle of San Jacinto. He added that a stronger reason 
why he ought not to have accepted these challenges was that 
the civilized world condemned the code, that Texas had a bad 
character for lawlessness, and that if he, being President, had 



48 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

engaged in a duel it would have reflected more or less dis- 
credit on the Republic. 

On another occasion I said to him that I had recently read 
a lengthy newspaper article purporting to give the cause of 
the separation between himself and his Tennessee wife, and 
asked if he had seen it. He said he had, and that he had seen 
others of similar character; but he added that they did not 
know what they were writing about — that no one knew or 
ever would know from him the cause of their separation. 
Only twice did I ever hear him allude to his wife and on both 
occasions he spoke of her with the greatest respect. While 
on this subject I should say that I spent several weeks in the 
summer of 1883 at the Red Boiling Spring in Tennessee, and 
while there met with three old gentlemen, who were well ac- 
quainted with General Houston when he was Governor of 
that State and when he and his wife separated, and who had 
known his wife before and after their marriage. She subse- 
quently married again. They spoke of her as a woman of 
good family and of the highest character, and told me that 
she had observed the same reticence as General Houston had 
as to the cause of their separation, and that she never spoke 
of him but in terms of the highest respect. 

General Houston sometimes took too much liquor. After 
his marriage to Miss Lee in 1840 it was understood that her 
influence had caused him to abandon its use. 

There were a great many Indians at the treaty-ground. 
The different bands had different dialects, but seemed to com- 
municate with each other mostly by signs, which seemed to 
be common to all of them. 

General Houston w^ore a suit of purple velvet embossed 
with figures representing a fox's head, and took along with 
him a bowie-knife of great size, which he purposed to wear 
when he met the Indians. In answer to my inquiry as to the 
reason for the figured suit, he observed that it would awe the 
Indians as a sort of mystery, and that the big bowie-knife 
would impress them with the idea that he was a great war- 
rior. He understood the Indian's character. 



INDIAN AND INTERNAL TROUBLES 49 

General Houston was one of Nature's great men — great 
in intellect, great in action, great in his wonderful experi- 
ences. A stranger would have taken him in any company for 
a ruler of men. 

For six years after my arrival in the Republic of Texas we 
had almost every spring and fall to meet an invasion from 
Mexico. There were at that time many remnants of the 
larger tribes of Indians on the frontier, including the Chero- 
kees, Kickapoos, Shawnees and Delawares in eastern Texas, 
besides the great tribes of Comanches and Kiowas on our 
northwestern borders, and small bands of other tribes along 
the frontier. Most of them were hostile, and when not openly 
so, they were frequently stealing horses and killing people on 
the frontiers. These things kept the people of Texas in an 
almost continuous state of war up to the time of annexation 
to the United States. This greatly interfered with agriculture 
and the development of the industries of the country. The 
population of Texas was probably less than 150,000; and 
nearly all were poor, and there was not property enough to 
yield by taxation revenue sufficient to support the govern- 
ment and to provide for the public defense. To meet this 
difficulty resort was had to the issue of what were called "red- 
back" notes. These finally became depreciated until the dollar 
was not worth more than twelve or fifteen cents, and would 
no longer support the government or provide a currency for 
commercial use. 

When General Houston, in 1841, entered on his second 
term as President of the Republic, he said, in his message to 
Congress : "There is not a dollar in the treasury. The nation 
is involved in ten or fifteen millions ; we are not only without 
money, but without credit." Provision was made to fund 
the redback notes into interest-bearing bonds, and for a new 
issue of $350,000 in what were called exchequer notes, in the 
hope that this small sum might be kept at par with coin. From 
1840 to the time of annexation I think it safe to assume that 
there was less real money in use in Texas than has been 



50 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

known in any other civilized country in modern times. Pov- 
erty, hard Hving, with shabby clothes, and the constant worry 
of protecting the country against Mexicans and Indians was 
our lot until delivered by annexation. There was but little 
opposition to this in the Republic. While living in what is 
now Kaufman County I received a note from the Hon. Wm. 

B. Ochiltree informing me that we had become a part of the 
United States. This gave me a thrill of joy such as I have 
rarely experienced. 

In the war between the United States and the Republic of 
Mexico, following annexation, Texas furnished her full 
quota of troops. Among the distinguished leaders were John 

C. Hays, the great ranger; Albert Sidney Johnston, who 
afterward became a brigadier-general in the army of the 
United States and a lieutenant-general in the army of the 
Confederacy, and George T. Wood, afterwards Governor of 
the State. 

When the war broke out I expected to go with a company 
from Nacogdoches, but when I had packed up and was ready 
to start I was stricken down with typhoid-pneumonia, and 
confined to my bed for about eight weeks, much of the time 
in an unconscious condition. 



CHAPTER V 
Lawyer and Legislator 

I was a pioneer settler in what is now Kaufman County, 
having moved there in the fall of 1844. I drew up the peti- 
tions for the organization of the counties of Henderson, 
Kaufman, and Van Zandt, asking in the petitions that these 
names be given them. This was in recognition of the friend- 
ship which had been shown me by each of these distinguished 
gentlemen ; and the legislature named the counties as re- 
quested in the petition. 

I commenced the study of law in 1844, without the aid of a 
preceptor, and some sixty miles from the nearest lawyer's 
office. I procured a number of elementary books on dif- 
ferent branches of the law, and began my reading with Black- 
stone's Commentaries. I frequently came to expressions the 
legal meaning of which I did not understand. In such cases 
I turned to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary to ascertain the 
primary meaning of the words of the sentence. Having done 
this, I turned to Bouvier's Law Dictionary to ascertain their 
legal meaning. I was thus enabled to determine whether the 
reference was to common law, to equity, or to criminal law, 
and whether a reference was to a question of pleading, of 
evidence, or of practice. In this way I made out the meaning 
of the sentence, and got the necessary legal distinctions as 
between common law, equity, and criminal law, and as to 
questions of pleading, evidence, and practice fixed in my 
memory, which was of great service to me afterward. I was 
perhaps three times as long reading Blackstone as the ordi- 
nary student with a teacher at hand would have been ; but 
when I had finished I had also read, by reference, nearly all 
my elementary law books. 



52 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In 1846 I received a temporary license to practice law in 
the district and inferior courts, with my office in the old town 
of Buffalo on the Trinity River. From 1844 to 1851 I culti- 
vated a small farm in what is now Kaufman County. In 
1846, Henderson having been formed into a new county, I 
was elected probate judge and lieutenant-colonel of the bat- 
talion of militia for that county. 

In 1847 I was elected to a seat as representative in the 
State Legislature from the Nacogdoches district, embracing 
what are now the counties of Nacogdoches, Angelina, Chero- 
kee, Smith, Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt, Rockwall, 
Rains, Wood, the west half of Upshur, the north half of Dal- 
las, and eight and one-half miles in width of the south end 
of Hunt County. Adolphus Sterne of Nacogdoches and 
Everett Lott of Smith County were my colleagues. On the 
organization of the House of Representatives I was made a 
member of each of the following standing committees : ju- 
diciary, public land and land office, apportionment of repre- 
sentation, federal relations and enrolled bills. 

Governor J. Pinckney Henderson submitted with his mes- 
sage to the legislature a series of resolutions which had been 
passed by half a dozen or more of the legislatures of different 
States, declaring their views on current political questions. 
Among them were the resolutions of Rhode Island, which 
condemned the tariff of 1846 and recommended the reinstall- 
ment of the tariff of 1842; denounced the institution of 
slavery ; and inveighed against the annexation of Texas and 
the acquisition of Mexican territory. These various resolu- 
tions were referred to the committee on federal relations, of 
which I was a member. The chairman of the committee in call- 
ing attention to them asked me if I would prepare resolutions 
responding to those of Rhode Island, and setting forth our 
views on those questions. I consented to do so ; and, when at 
the next meeting of the committee I made my report, 
I was directed to present the report and resolutions to 
the House. It did not occur to me that in so doing I 



LAWYER AND LEGISLATOR 53 

would make myself responsible for the defense of them; 
so when they came up for action, Mr. Benjamin Epperson, 
a talented young member and brilliant speaker, asked that 
they should be set for a future day to give time for their 
examination. This was agreed to, and when that day 
arrived, he, being a Whig, offered a substitute for my reso- 
lutions, embodying the substance of Mr. Clay's Lexington 
speech of the summer of 1847, ^^''d made a strong speech in 
favor of his substitute. I was expecting some other member 
to reply to him ; but no one seemed disposed to do so ; and I 
saw all eyes directed toward me. It then flashed on me 
that having reported the resolutions I was expected to defend 
them. I was a young and new member, and had never ad- 
dressed the House, but I made the best argument I could; 
and when I sat down, M. B. Lamar, ex-President of the 
Republic, then a representative from Webb County, arose 
and said he had examined the resolutions with care, and 
that they stated the views of the people and of the South 
very clearly and correctly, and that he hoped they would be 
passed by the House unanimously without the crossing of a 
t or the dotting of an i. There were but three votes for the 
substitute and the resolutions were adopted. 

I was very much gratified by the statements of ex-Presi- 
dent Lamar. Mr, Epperson and I were not then personally 
acquainted. When the House adjourned we met and intro- 
duced ourselves, and became strongly attached friends, and 
so remained until his death many years later. 

More work was done at this session than at any other 
since the organization of the State government. All the 
organic laws were re-enacted and perfected, having been 
hurriedly passed by the first legislature. The organization 
of the supreme, district, county and justice courts was pro- 
vided for. The duties of sheriffs, assessors and collectors 
of taxes, of constables and coroners were defined. A very 
elaborate probate law was passed, a law providing for the 
assessment and collection of taxes, and a law for appor- 



54 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

tioning senators and representatives, and for defining the 
senatorial and representative districts ; besides much other 
general and special legislation. Among the important laws 
enacted at this session was one introduced by me to give 
each county in the State its own land office and land records. 
This was made necessary by the following facts : the 
Constitution of the Republic of Texas provided for the sec- 
tionizing of the public lands of Texas, on a plan like that of 
the United States; but the Congress of the Republic found 
that it could not provide the money necessary for the execu- 
tion of the requirement, and some provision was necessary 
to enable the new settlers to obtain homes on the public 
lands. To overcome this difficulty the Congress enacted a 
law providing that each county should be a land district 
and a section. While this was plainly a subterfuge and an 
evasion of the constitutional requirement, it was from 
necessity sustained. The Constitution of the Republic 
enumerated the counties and made provision for a very 
limited number of new counties to be created by Congress, 
and no others until the census of the population of the 
Republic should be taken. The representatives of the Re- 
public to the Courts of Europe had made certain statements 
as to the amount of the population of the Republic, wdiich 
it was thought made it best not to take the census ; and this 
w^as not done until after the annexation of the Republic to 
the United States. 

The existing apportionment of representatives and sena- 
tors was manifestly unjust; for about two-thirds of the 
population was east of the Trinity River and about two- 
thirds of the senators and representatives west of that 
stream. During the session of the legislature the apportion- 
ment committee reported and the House of Representatives 
passed a bill which equalized the representation fairly. At 
that session we had no public printer. Our proceedings 
were all in manuscript; and before the final passage of the 
bill by the House it was stolen, no doubt by some one 



LAWYER AND LEGISLATOR 55 

opposed to its passage. The committee directed William 
Borland of Lamar County, James Willie of Washington 
County, and myself, members of the committee, to under- 
take to make out a duplicate of the stolen bill. We succeeded 
in this to the satisfaction of the committee, and reported it 
to the House. It was passed, though late in the session, 
and went to the Senate, where it was also passed, but with 
some amendments. The two houses had agreed to a joint 
resolution for the adjournment of the session, and the bill 
was late in being returned to the House. I went to Speaker 
James Henderson and requested that when the bill came 
from the Senate he recognize either me or Colonel Borland 
to move the adoption of the Senate's amendments and to 
call for the previous question. When the bill came to the 
House I moved the adoption of the amendments of the 
Senate ; and upon a yea and nay vote they were accepted by 
a majority of two. This was done by Mr. Willie's voting 
with us, though he opposed the bill in order to move a recon- 
sideration and then to speak until the session should be ended. 
If he had voted against the bill, it would have been lost on a 
tie vote. As soon as the result was announced four or five 
of those who had voted against it walked out to a saloon back 
of the Capitol to console themselves by taking a drink. As 
soon as the vote adopting the Senate amendments was passed, 
I moved to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the 
table ; and on taking the vote my motion was carried by some 
half a dozen majority. The House then adjourned. 

The members went down on the avenue, and a good many 
of them stopped at a saloon to take their parting drinks. 
Mr. Epperson and I coming up the avenue on the way to 
our boarding-house, met Senator Henry W. Jewett, who 
inquired about the apportionment bill. We told him we 
supposed Kimbell, the clerk, was enrolling it. He said no, 
that he himself had put out the last light in the Capitol. We 
found this to be true and went back down the avenue, and 
meeting Mr. Mosely, requested him to keep sight of Ben 



56 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Hill, the clerk of the House, until we could go to Kimbell's 
residence down near the Colorado and get him. We found 
him and on our return were joined by Mosely and Hill. On 
reaching the Capitol, Hill expressed doubts as to his au- 
thority to give us the bill and amendments, as the House 
had adjourned. He went to consult the Attorney-General, 
and declined to give us the bill. We went into a committee 
room which joined the hall of representatives, and forced 
the door of the hall open and took the bill and amendments 
from the desk of the clerk and put Kimbell to enrolling it. 
Epperson, Mosely and I happened to be members of the 
enrolling committee. We went to the room of Lieutenant- 
Governor Greer, who was President of the Senate, and to 
the room of Speaker Henderson to let them know that the 
bill would be brought for their signatures as soon as it could 
be enrolled, supposing that it might be done before daylight. 
But it was seven or eight o'clock when the enrollment was 
completed. We thereupon took the bill to them and they 
both signed it; and, delivering it to Governor Wood at his 
office, he directed the Secretary of State to file it with the 
enrolled acts. 

The unwillingness of those who had enjoyed the advan- 
tage of over-representation to surrender that advantage, 
and the circumstances attending the passage of this act, 
gave rise to much speculation and controversy in the news- 
papers. It was contended that the bill was enrolled and 
reported to the Governor after the adjournment of the legis- 
lature, and was therefore no law; and to secure a judicial 
decision to that effect, two citizens of Guadalupe County 
agreed to make a bet of five hundred dollars on the question 
as to whether the act was constitutional. They put up their 
notes for those sums, and referred the question to a third 
person for decision, with the understanding that the loser was 
to refuse to pay, and that suit was to be brought to get the 
question of the validity of the act passed upon by the 
courts. In this way the case went to the district court, 



LAWYER AND LEGISLATOR 57 

where the decision was in favor of its constitutionality. It 
was then taken to the Supreme Court, and Justice Lipscomb, 
in announcing the decision, said the court had been consid- 
ering whether it ought not to impose the penalties for con- 
tempt on the parties and their attorneys who brought that 
case before the court for the purpose of obtaining its opinion 
on a political question, based on a gambling consideration. 
The case was dismissed and the law sustained. 

In the spring of 1848, upon examination, I had received 
a regular license to practice law in the district and inferior 
courts of the State. I was subsequently licensed to practice 
in the Supreme Court of the State. In 1857 I was au- 
thorized to practice in the Supreme and inferior courts of 
the United States. 

On June 19, 1896, Tulane University of Louisiana con- 
ferred on me the honorary degree of doctor of laws — the 
fifth person so honored by that institution, and in April, 
1903, I received the same degree from Baylor University 
.of Texas. 

Before I pass from this subject I think I may be excused 
in citing a few of the important cases at law with which I 
was connected. 

The first murder case in which I was leading counsel was 
that against John Jennings for the killing of Major James 
Shannon, in Grayson County, Texas. Shannon was a 
brother of Hon. Jeff. Shannon, member of the legislature 
from that county. The case was one of much interest. Jen- 
nings was acquitted. From this time on my criminal practice 
increased. About this time I represented Major McDermot 
in the trial of the title to a tract of one hundred and sixty 
acres of land now in the city of Dallas — in a suit brought 
against him by one Carder; and I was employed also in the 
case of Latham vs. Tucker, involving principles of equity 
and the marshalling of assets, from both of which I gained 
a prominence in real estate litigation. I refused a fee of 
two thousand five hundred dollars offered by Ed Day if I 



58 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

would defend him against the charge of murdering his wife ; 
and, volunteering to prosecute him without fee or reward, I 
secured his conviction. The last fee which my partner, the 
Honorable Nat M. Burford, and I received before I went on 
the bench was five thousand dollars. It came from an 
important land case in Ellis County, Texas. 

In 1849 I was a candidate for election to the State Senate. 
It was the only time I was ever defeated in a popular elec- 
tion, and in this case I deliberately accepted defeat rather 
than promise the people to do what I felt sure would operate 
to their injury. A large part of the district was in what was 
then known as Peter's Colony. The colonization company 
had agreed to introduce and settle colonists at its own ex- 
pense, for six hundred and forty acres of land for each head 
of a family, and three hundred and twenty acres for each 
single man it should so introduce and settle. It invited 
colonists, and many families and single men came into the 
colony at their own expense, the company agreeing to allow 
each head of a family and each single man a portion of its 
land. Many settlements were made before the company 
had the land surveyed and sectionized, and when afterward 
the surveys were made, many of the settlers found the land 
assigned to them to be parts of different sections and sub- 
divisions of sections. This produced great dissatisfaction. 
The company's agent, Mr. Hedgecox, insisted that the set- 
tlers must rearrange the location of their claims, which in 
many, probably the most cases, meant the division of their 
farms, and would operate in other respects to their serious 
injury. It was contended by the settlers that the coloniza- 
tion company had forfeited its contract by non-compliance 
with its terms, and they insisted on the passage of a law to 
give the heads of families six hundred and forty acres and 
single men three hundred and twenty acres of land, ignoring 
the rights of the company. The Attorney-General of the 
Republic, Ebenezer Allen, had given and published an 
opinion sustaining the position of Hedgecox, the agent of the 



LAWYER AND LEGISLATOR 59 

company. I told the settlers it would be possible to get such 
a law through the legislature, but if it were passed the com- 
pany would enjoin the issuance of patents to them, and bring 
suits against each of them in the Federal court at Galveston, 
the only place in Texas at which a Federal court was then 
held, and that the expense of litigation at that distance 
(about three hundred miles) from their homes would be 
more than the land was then worth; and that I would not 
promise to do them that wrong, even at their own request. 
Another candidate made them that promise and was elected 
by a very small majority, and secured the passage of a law 
giving to each settler in the colony the land he claimed. 

In a short time, however, after the passage of this law, 
the Peters Colonization Company obtained from the court 
a writ of injunction prohibiting the commissioner of the 
general land office from issuing patents to the settlers, and 
entered suits in the United States circuit court at Galveston 
against many of the settlers claiming under the law to secure 
the annulment of their claims. This is what I had told the 
settlers during my canvass would be done; and very great 
excitement ensued among the colonists, giving rise to large 
public meetings, in each of the seven counties in the colony, 
and but for the efforts of Col. M. T. Johnson of Tarrant 
County, the Hon. John M. Crockett of Dallas, and myself, 
violent measures against the agent of the company would 
certainly have been adopted. 

The public meetings referred to provided for a conven- 
tion of delegates from those seven counties to meet at the 
town of McKinney in Collin County, to consult as to what 
measures would be necessary for their relief. By a reso- 
lution of that convention, a committee was appointed with 
authority to employ counsel to represent the colonists in the 
general land office and in Federal and State courts. That 
committee entered into an agreement to pay me ten thou- 
sand dollars to represent their interests, which I undertook 
to do. But after a time I gave it up, having been elected 



60 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

judge of the district embracing some of the counties con- 
cerned. This was in the fall of 1852. My judicial district 
embraced the counties of Houston, Anderson, Henderson, 
Van Zandt, Navarro, Ellis, Kaufman, Tarrant, and Dallas. 
The term for which I was elected was six years. 

While the controversy above mentioned was in some 
measure a local matter, it involved the interests of the 
families of two or three thousand colonists, occupying seven 
of the best counties of land in the State. It was finally 
compromised by the company's taking the amount of the 
lands to which they were entitled in the colony, and the 
colonists' securing three hundred and twenty acres of land 
for each head of family and one hundred and sixty acres 
for single men. 

Meantime, in the summer of 185 1, I had become a citizen 
of the town of Palestine, then the largest in our judicial 
district, and having the ablest lawyers. Friends advised me 
that I could not expect to succeed in competition with so 
strong a bar. My answer was that if I could not, then I 
ought not to continue in the profession of the law. 

In December, 1852, I was married to Miss Edwina Moss 
Nelms, daughter of Colonel Edwin and Mrs. Diana Nelms. 
Our marriage was blessed with six children, three of whom 
are still living. She died in Richmond, Virginia, in July, 
1863. 

I continued to perform the duties of judge of the district 
court until 1856. The legislature during the session of 
1855-56 passed a law increasing the salary of district judges 
from $1,750 per annum to $2,250, assigning as a reason for 
the increase that the existing salaries were not sufficient to 
secure the best legal talent for the bench. Soon after the 
passage of this law I tendered my resignation as judge, 
and announced myself a candidate for reelection, giving 
as the reason for my action that if the increased salary might 
enable the people of the district to select an abler judge it 
was my duty to give them a chance to do so. An additional 



LAWYER AND LEGISLATOR 61 

reason, too, was that since my election the district had been 
changed by dropping the counties of Navarro, ElHs, Tar- 
rant and Dallas, and by adding to the district the counties 
of Cherokee and Smith, which contained nearly half the 
population of the new district. I stated that it would be 
but fair to allow these two newly added counties to have a 
voice in the selection of their judge. I was, in 1856, re- 
elected as district judge for another term of six years. On 
my election, the law firm of Reagan and Burford, which had 
existed for four years, was dissolved. I then owned a good 
many tracts of land; Judge Burford had none; and I com- 
plimented him with a deed to one hundred acres now 
covered by the city of Sherman, and to three hundred acres 
now within the city of Dallas. 



CHAPTER VI 

In Congress 

The year after my election as judge the Democratic party 
of the first congressional district of Texas held a convention 
at the town of Tyler, Texas, to nominate a candidate for a 
seat in the Congress of the United States. I had seen that 
the newspapers were discussing my name for that position, 
and so I wrote to some of the members of the convention 
that I could not accept the nomination if made; that I had 
been recently reelected for a second term as judge of the 
district court and preferred that position to entering political 
life ; and that I did not want to be placed in the position of 
seeking one office while filling another. I was holding the 
court of Kaufman County during the session of the con- 
vention. Disregarding my objections, the convention nomi- 
nated me, and appointed a committee to wait on me and 
urge my acceptance. The committee presented the view 
that the convention had acted and adjourned, and that if I 
refused to accept, it would produce much confusion, and 
probably operate detrimentally to the Democracy of the 
district, which was then represented by the Hon. L. D. 
Evans, a Know-Nothing, and an enemy of Democracy. On 
my stating that I preferred judicial to political service, and 
that I disliked to give up my office of judge so soon after 
being elected a second time, it was argued by the committee 
that as it was near the time for my vacation I could make 
the race, and if elected resign, while if defeated I could con- 
tinue in the office of judge. To this my reply was that if I 
accepted the nomination the first paper I should write would 
be my resignation as judge; that I would be unwilling to 



IN CONGRESS 63 

hold one important office while canvassing for another. The 
result was that I yielded, sent in my resignation as judge to 
the Governor of the State, and announced myself a candidate 
for Congress. 

Though I was much worn down by holding the courts 
for five months and not in very good health, I entered the 
canvass. Judge Evans, my opponent, was a man of ability, 
in the meridian of life, with considerable political experience, 
and with the prestige of being the sitting member of Con- 
gress. My race was made the more difficult because Gen. 
Sam Houston, with his great ability, experience, long 
service in the past, and great popularity, was a candidate 
for the office of Governor of the State, and the leader of the 
Know-Nothing party represented by Judge Evans. I had 
necessarily to meet and overcome the influence of General 
Houston, who had led the army of the Republic to a great 
victory at San Jacinto, who had been twice elected Presi- 
dent of the Republic, and who had served the State in the 
Senate of the United States three terms. In combating his 
views I always did so with great respect for his character, 
his distinguished public service, and his greater age, dealing 
only with the political principles involved in the contest and 
never in personal unkindness. 

Soon after accepting the nomination I prepared a list of 
appointments of places and times at which I proposed to 
address the people of the district, and sent a copy to Judge 
Evans with my request for a joint canvass and discussion; 
and with the statement that if the dates and places of 
appointment did not meet his approval, and he would pre- 
pare a list which suited him I would join him in it. He 
accepted my list in a rather unfriendly reply, and I opened 
the canvass by a speech in Palestine on the 6th day of June. 
I spoke at Crockett and in Trinity County before being met 
by Judge Evans at Woodville, where we had our first joint 
debate. Between the 6th of June and the first Monday in 
August we canvassed thirty-six counties, in forty-eight joint 



64 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

debates, covering the country extending from the Mexican 
Gulf on the south to the Red River on the north, and from 
the Sabine River on the east to the Trinity on the west, often 
travehng a good part of the night and once all night to 
meet our appointments. Our joint discussions never lasted 
less than five hours, and often considerably more, generally 
occurring in the daytime, but on several occasions at night. 
I greatly doubt if there ever was in the United States so 
laborious a canvass as this. Judge Evans was a man of 
great physical strength and capable of great endurance. All 
I can say of myself in this respect is that we went through 
the campaign together. 

I based my canvass on the Democratic platform and three 
objections to the policy of the Know-Nothing, or American 
party, as it was often called. The first was that there ought 
to be no religious tests in politics, that the framers of the 
Constitution of the United States and of the Constitution 
of our State carefully provided for the separation of church 
and state. While in principle I was a Protestant and was 
probably influenced by prejudice against the past history 
of the Catholic church, I still regarded the blending of poli- 
tics and religion as dangerous to the future of our country. 
My second objection was that we ought not to make the 
place of birth of a citizen a political test. Foreign-born 
citizens, I urged, had aided in the struggle of our Revolu- 
tionary fathers to maintain the independence of this country; 
I argued that it had been the policy of the Federal and of the 
several State governments to invite intelligent foreigners 
from western Europe to help develop and build up our 
country; and that it would be both inconsistent and wrong 
for us now to turn upon them and deny them the right 
either to vote under the conditions prescribed by law or to 
hold office. My third objection was that secret political 
societies were un-American and unwise, and endangered the 
future of our liberty and of our system of government, for 
ours was a government of the people, and ought to be con- 



IN CONGRESS 65 

trolled by enlightened public opinion; and that free public 
discussion of political questions, I believed, was the only 
way in which we could expect to get a fair and just consid- 
eration of such questions. And further, I emphasized, that 
in secret societies, such as the Know-Nothing, the most 
violent and radical men became the leaders and ruled the 
proceedings and dictated its conclusions, there being no 
chance for a presentation of opposing views and for the 
comparison of opinions. 

Upon these issues I was elected by between three and four 
thousand majority. 

I took my seat in Congress as the Representative of the 
first district of Texas on the 7th day of December, 1857, 
and I was appointed a member of the Committee on Indian 
Affairs and on the Committee of Expenditures of the Post 
Office Department. 

On the 19th day of January, 1858, I delivered an address 
in the House of Representatives on the life, services, char- 
acter, and death of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, late a Senator of 
the United States. I knew him well and loved him. He 
was one of the greatest of the sons of Texas, and for this 
reason I offer at this point my address. 

Mr. Speaker: The announcement just made of the death of 
Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, late a Senator from the State of Texas, 
calls for another pause in the ordinary business of this house, 
and for the performance of our last solemn duty, as a body, to 
the memory of a great and good man. 

General Rusk was a native of the State of South Carolina, 
where he studied law, and commenced in comparative obscurity 
the great business of life. He subsequently removed to the State 
of Georgia, and in 1835 to the State of Texas. The struggle 
for the independence and separate national existence of Texas 
had then begun, and that love of justice and of right, that manly 
courage and lofty patriotism which so distinguished his after 
years, induced him at once to identify his fortunes with those 
of the brave spirits there, and who had learned the value of 
freedom and equality, and had determined to meet the perils 
of war rather than submit to the loss of their civil and religious 
liberty. 



66 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAX 

It is not my purpose now to notice in detail the many historic 
events in the Hfe of Greneral Rusk. This will be the pleasant 
duty of the historian. Nor is it my object to pronounce a formal 
eulogy upon his life and services. But I come to offer the grate- 
ful tribute of the brave and generous people he has so often 
commanded in battle, and so long, so ably, so faithfully served 
in the councils of the State and Nation. 

As commander of a volunteer company ; as aid to Gen. 
Stephen F. Austin ; as the first Secretary of War of the Re- 
public of Texas ; as the first Chief Justice of the Republic of 
Texas ; as major-general of the militia of the Republic of Texas, 
charged with important duties and clothed with large powers ; 
as a member of the convention which fonned the Constitution 
of the Republic of Texas ; as a memiber of the Congress of the 
Republic of Texas ; as president of the convention which formed 
the Constitution of the State of Texas ; as Senator in the Con- 
gress of the United States ; as an eminent and successful law- 
yer; as an unostentatious and loyal citizen, ever respecting the 
laws, the religion, the institutions and the government of his 
country ; as a de\-oted husband and aft'ectionate father— though 
he has fallen in the meridian of his manhood, he has filled the 
full measure of a citizen, a soldier, a patriot, a statesman and 
a hero, to whom the citizens of Texas will continue to point 
with pleasure and with pride as long as their hearts contintie 
to beat with the pride of chivalry, and the love of pure and un- 
spotted integrity, and exalted and unselfish patriotism. 

General Rusk possessed a mind of uncommon clearness and 
strength, and a constitution and physical vigor capable of great 
labor and endtirance ; a commanding and noble person ; a pleas- 
ant and vivacious temperament : was fond of anecdote, and full 
of kindness and sympathy for the unfortunate of all grades and 
conditions. Indeed, his love of justice, and candor and truth, 
and his sympathy for and readiness to espouse the cause of the 
unfortunate, or weak, or oppressed, might be said to have been 
his most prominent characteristics. Always courteous and re- 
spectful to his equals, he was kind and condescending to his 
inferiors, often recognizing them and hearing their suit, and 
contributing to their wants, under circumstances which showed 
that he regarded the true dignity of a man as consisting in 
acts of justice and mercy, rather than in holding himself bound 
by the chains of ceremonial coldness which too often separates 
a man from his fellows. 



IN CONGRESS 67 

He fought gallantly the battles of his adopted country, and 
while Secretary of War, beyond the ordinary duties of that sta- 
tion, he bore a most distinguished part on the glorious field of 
San Jacinto, and aided to add another to the roll of nations of 
free republican states, and to gild the Southern horizon with the 
star of liberty, which once floated in lone and solitary grandeur 
over the broad and beautiful plains of Texas ; but which, now, 
wreathed with the oak and the olive, beams with undiminished 
luster amid the grand armorial constellation in the dome above 
us, representing at once the separate sovereignty and the na- 
tional unity of the American States. 

Though he occupied many important stations, and though 
much of his life was spent in the true discharge of official duty, 
he was fond of the retirement and quietude of private life, and 
generally shunned rather than sought office. This was illus- 
trated on several occasions in his life. He was urged on more 
than one occasion to accept the Presidency of the Republic of 
Texas, but uniformly declined. At the time of the last Presi- 
dential election there, both of the distinguished men who w^ere 
candidates for that office, before their announcement, urged 
General Rusk to accept the position ; and neither of them would 
have opposed him. But when the Presidency was thus at his 
command, without opposition, he declined to accept it. He 
refused the use of his name for the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States, and repeatedly discouraged the use of his name 
for the Presidency. 

As a soldier, he was brave and self reliant; as an officer, he 
was cautious and calculating, always ready to expose his own 
person to danger, but never rashly exposing his men. 

As a statesman, he looked to a strict construction of the 
Federal Constitution and the preservation of the rights of the 
States as the surest, yea the only, means of maintaining the per- 
manency of the Union, the equality of the States, and the 
liberties of the people, in the spirit in which these blessings were 
secured to us by our Revolutionary fathers. And while he 
looked proudly on our past history, and the extraordinary 
growth and progress of our common country, in physical science, 
the arts, agriculture and commerce ; our advancement in moral 
science, in religion, in laws, in good government, and in all that 
tends to the civilization and improvement of his country and 
his race ; yet, as I learned from him but a few weeks before his 
death, he looked with fearful apprehension to the continued and 
alarming agitation of the question of slavery, as tending to 
w^eaken his high hopes of the future destiny of the Republic. 



68 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

At the time of which I speak he was considering with great 
anxiety whether any means could be adopted which would 
avert those dangers, and secure, if possible, on a permanent 
basis, that fraternal good feeling and mutual respect for the 
rights of each other which should ever characterize the people 
of a nation so blessed with such elements of happiness and 
prosperity as our own. He also condemned with much earnest- 
ness the new social theories and religious fanaticisms which 
have obtained a limited foothold in parts of our country, as 
being full of delusions and of danger ; and, as evidence that he 
had rightly estimated their importance, some of their bitter 
fruits are now upon the country. 

But, alas ! wdth all his wisdom, with all his usefulness, with 
all his honors, with all the devotion of a confiding constituency, 
he is gone — gone from the family hearthstone, from the domes- 
tic and social circles ; no more to wave his proud plume in 
advance of his comrades in arms ; no more to draw his keen 
sword in defense of liberty ; no more to offer his wise counsels 
for the good of the nation ; no more to offer the willing hand of 
charity to the needy; no more to offer kind and encouraging 
counsel to the deserving. The scenes of earth have closed upon 
him. And while we mourn his death, we doubly mourn its 
manner. It is true he fell by his own hand ; but that hand was 
not moved by the natural impulses of his upright, generous 
heart, or guided by that reason and consciousness which had so 
long distinguished him for his prudence and moderation. 

A severe domestic bereavement — the loss of the wife who 
was the cherished idol of his early manhood and the guiding 
star of his after life, who, in prosperity and in adversity, in 
sickness and in health, under all the varied fortunes of his life, 
had clung to him with a constant and unvarying devotion, had, 
by the inscrutable hand of Providence, been taken from him. 
To this was added the many cares and perplexities his position 
had drawn upon him. And to these was added a disease which, 
it is thought, may have affected his spine and brain ; and these 
combined causes, operating upon his keenly sensitive mental 
organization, it is believed caused his reason to give way, and 
his struggling soul, unguided by consciousness, sought peace 
in death. 

As the purity of his heart, the prudence and moderation of 
his life, the extraordinary inducements he had to desire a con- 
tinuance of life, and the absence of any known inducement to 
desire his own destruction, exclude the idea that he could have 



IN CONGRESS 69 

been conscious of the manner of his death, so they leave us 
room to hope and beheve that he will not be held accountable 
for it before the Eternal Judge. 

I will conclude what I have to say by adding that the legisla- 
ture of Texas, responding to the general sentiment of sincere 
admiration entertained by the people of that State, for the 
worth and services of General Rusk, has already made pro- 
vision for the erection of his statue, at the capital of the State. 
And a nation's sorrow bears testimony that his fame and use- 
fulness were the property of the whole country. 

I speak here not only as the representative of the district in 
which General Rusk has lived ever since his emigration to 
Texas, but as one who has seen him in his home with his family, 
around his own fireside, amongst his neighbors, in the court- 
house, in the tented field, and in the blazing front of battle ; the 
same pure, and just, and generous, and noble man, at all times 
and everywhere, more worthy of imitation, in his leading char- 
acteristics, than any other it has been my fortune to know. 

On the 19th of March, 1858, I delivered a speech in com- 
mittee of the whole, ostensibly on the question of the admis- 
sion of Kansas into the Union as a State, under the Le- 
compton Constitution, in which I reviewed the anti-slavery 
agitation, exposing the unconstitutional aggressions of the 
North upon the rights of the Southern States, and insisting 
that territories were the common property of all the people 
of all the States, that the Constitution of the United States 
recognized African slavery, and the right of property in 
African slaves. I therefore argued that any citizen owning 
slaves had the right to take them with him into the common 
territory — the same right that enabled any citizen to take 
with him his property of whatever character, with the under- 
standing that w^hen a Territory was admitted as a new State, 
it had the right to determine whether it would be slave- 
holding or free. 

Also I controverted the statement that the United States 
had paid $200,000,000 for Texas; and showed that wdiile 
the Government had paid $800,000,000 for acquired terri- 
tory, that $600,000,000 of that sum had gone to the North. 



70 MEMOIRS BY JOHN II. REAGAN 

I showed that out of the 2,174.566 square miles so acquired, 
the slaveholding States of Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Ar- 
kansas and Texas had been formed with 457,605 square 
miles of territory; and that California. "Washington. Iowa, 
j\linnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, and Oregon, containing 
i.y7,2,Sy'/ square miles, had become free States ; and that all 
the balance of the acquired territory was likely to become 
such. 

When I accepted the nomination for a seat in Congress, 
which was made against my wish, I stated my objection to 
entering into political life, and that I must not be expected 
to be a candidate for a second time. While a member of the 
35th CongTess I wrote home that I would not accept a second 
nomination. During the 35th Congress there was a strong 
feeling, especially among the extreme Southern Rights men, 
in favor of filibustering to acquire additional territory from 
[Mexico, Cuba, and Central America, and for the reopening 
of the African slave-trade, and for the creation of additional 
slave States, to restore the balance of power between the 
North and South. As I did not contemplate asking for re- 
election, I determined to avoid a discussion of these ques- 
tions because I did not desire to go out of public life in a 
political contest. However, my views being challenged in 
the House of Representatives, I made a brief statement of 
my opposition to filibustering and tlie reopening of the Afri- 
can slave-trade. The following excerpt* well stated my posi- 
tion on the vital questions of the day, showing my attitude 
toward the National Government in unequivocal words : 

Now. in regard to the other question, as to whether my senti- 
ments favor the South, or agree with the North, I desire to say 
this : That I have been, and, I trust am, as faithful an advocate 
of the doctrine of the rights of the South, and of a strict con- 
struction of the Constitution, as any man in the country; and 
that whenever aggressions from any source, or from any cause, 
shall be made on any of the States, to strike down the rights of 
the States, or deprive the people of any of their liberties. I will 
unite with my people in any necessary movement to protect 

*Cong. Globe, o5th Cong., 2d Sess., Part II. 1467. 



IX CONGRESS 71 

their rights from aggression. I have always professed to be a 
national man : and in twelve speeches that I made in my district 
last summer, I declared that I never advocated a sentiment in 
Texas which I would not advocate in even.- State, district and 
township in the Union. 

I repudiate all sectional heresies. I repudiate everything that 
is not national; even-iJiing that looks to the ^-iolation of the 
moral law, to build up political parties, or sectional parties. 
And it was because I placed m.yself on the great principles of 
nationality, because I had defied faction and fanaticism in the 
South, as I defy faction and fanaticism in the North, against 
their aggressions and designs on the Constitution and the 
Union, that, perhaps, an attempt is now made to arraign me 
before the Congress of the United States, and before the 
people of Texas, on the ground that I am a national man. 
\\hx, sir, I have gone through the trial. I defied the issue. 
I have met those who met me upon it. I am going home on 
the same principles to appeal for the Constitution and tlie 
Union, for the rights of the States and the equality of the 
people, for the doctrine of the Kentucky- and \'irginia Resolu- 
tions of 1798-99, and Mr. ^Madison's report on them ; for all 
that is right and all that is just, against the demoralizing 
doctrines of filibusters, and against the dangerous heresies of 
reopening the slave-trade. I never dodged an issue; and if 
my whole heart could be exposed to the people of the Union, it 
would be seen that I never dodged an issue in my life. If I 
cannot remain in public life as a patriot, I am always prepared 
to go into private life as an honest man, entertaining no opinion 
that is not faithful to the Union, faithful to the rights of the 
South, faithful to the rights of the people, faithful to the oath 
that I have taken to support the Constitution, faithful to all my 
obligations as a citizen of this countr}-. I do not love public 
life : and I would scorn it whenever it is to be held by a sacrifice 
of that manly dignity which ought to envelop everc* American 
freeman. I denounce fanaticism in the South with the same 
distinctness that I denounce the fanaticism of abolitionism in 
the Xorth. They are both heresies. They are alike dangerous 
to the Constitution and the Union ; alike dangerous to the 
mission of this great and glorious Republic: alike opposed to 
every noble aspiration of an American statesman and patriot. 
Let combinations be made to put me down. I defy them. I 
go before an honest people, who can afford to let their Repre- 
sentative be an honest man, and express patriotic sentiments. 
Let them put me down, if they dare. I defy them to the issue. 



CHAPTER VII 
Reelection to Congress 

The address given in the preceding chapter caused very- 
bitter denunciation of me by the leading newspapers of the 
State, such as the Galveston Nezvs, the Houston Telegraph, 
the State Gazette of Austin, and the Marshall Republican; 
in fact, by nearly all the newspapers of the State and by 
nearly all the active politicians. There were but three weekly 
papers, so far as I know, that sustained me, and two of these 
gave but a qualified support. With the exception of Hon. 
G. W. Smyth of Jasper and Hon. R. B. Hubbard of Smith 
County, I did not know of a man in active political life in 
the State that was not opposed to my views. Besides 
charging me with being too national to be a proper repre- 
sentative of a Southern constituency, the abuse of me was 
so personal and so vile that when I read it in the newspapers 
I would burn them to keep my wife from seeing what was 
said about me. She had opposed my acceptance of the nomi- 
nation for Congress the first time, and wished me to abandon 
political life. Among other things it was argued that I 
declined to be a candidate for reelection because I knew I 
could not be elected. 

After bearing in silence these attacks as long as I could, 
I took a few of the newspapers containing them, marked the 
articles and asked my wife to read them, so as to advise me 
on my return in the evening as to what I ought to do. On 
my return I found her very much excited, and she urged 
that I ought to become a candidate, if I resigned as soon as 
elected. I told her that with her consent I would enter the 
race not to resign, for I could scarcely hope to beat all the 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS 73 

politicians and all the newspapers. But, at least, I added, I 
could fight my adversaries, and I thought I could do some- 
thing toward impressing sound political morality on the 
public mind. I accordingly announced myself as a candidate 
for reelection to Congress, subject to the action of the Demo- 
cratic convention. 

Entering on the canvass, I had from two to five speakers 
opposed to me at all my appointments, before the nominat- 
ing convention met. The principal points they made against 
me were : ( i ) That I was too national in my views to be a 
fit Representative of our district; (2) that I was opposed 
to filibustering and reopening the African slave-trade.* To 
these charges my reply was, that I was in favor of the 
preservation of the Union under the Constitution as made 
by the fathers, and that I was opposed to the Abolitionists 
of the North and to the Secessionists of the South ; that I 
was opposed to filibustering because we would not be justi- 
fied in morals or in law in making war on and murdering 
and robbing people who had done us no harm, as a matter 
of political policy ; that I was opposed to the African slave- 
trade, independently of any question of morality, because 
the United States had treaty engagements with a number 
of great nations, prohibiting that trade, and it could not be 
revived without violating our treaty obligations, and prob- 
ably involving us in a war with the other great nations; 
and because a majority of the people of the United States 
were opposed to it; and because it was impracticable, un- 
reasonable, unjust, and unstatesmanlike. 

Notwithstanding such formidable opposition as I had to 
meet, wherever I discussed these issues before the people I 
saw and knew as well as if I had been down among them, 
that the most of them agreed with me. When the conven- 
tion met, it nominated me on the first ballot by a majority of 
about three- fourths. The other one-fourth bolted and nomi- 



*The State convention had voted down a resolution in favor of fili- 
bustering and the reopening of the African slave-trade. 



74 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

nated an able and eloquent man, Judge Wm, B. Ochiltree, an 
extreme "Southern Rights" man. The result was that I 
defeated him by one of the largest majorities that any candi- 
date for Congress ever got in the State, During that canvass 
I gave to the public a circular letter, from which I quote the 
following extract, illustrative of my views : 

These doctrines of filibustering and the reopening of the 
African slave-trade are chosen as those best calculated to secure 
the execution of their designs, because they appeal directly to 
the bad passions most easily awakened, and most difficult to 
reason with, those by which the people are encouraged to believe 
they are to be enriched suddenly and without patient toil, which 
has heretofore been regarded as necessary to secure wealth. 
These doctrines are not, and are not intended to be Democratic ; 
but they are, and intended to be purely sectional and revolu- 
tionary. And I appeal to the Democracy of Texas, in the name 
of the Constitution and the Union, in the name of the rights of 
the States and the liberties of the people, in the name of law and 
order, in the name of good government and sound morals, and 
for the happiness of our people and perpetuation of our insti- 
tutions to sustain the old, the pure, the time-honored doctrines 
of our party ; and put down these sectional and revolutionary 
doctrines. I know those who favor these doctrines will apply 
to me their cant expressions of submissionist ! Submission to 
what? To be happy in a good government and obedient to 
just laws, and observant of sound morals? Certainly to these 
I submit. But I shall be called a Union saver, and charged 
with yielding to Northern aggression and surrendering the 
rights of the South. But no act, no vote, no speech of my life 
will warrant this. I have seen and understood the baleful 
effects of the sectional and revolutionary doctrines of the Abo- 
litionists of the North, and have resisted and denounced them 
whenever and wherever I could do so. And I have often 
declared, and now repeat the declaration, that if they obtain 
the power to do so, and so attempt to abridge the constitutional 
rights of the States, or deprive the people either in the States 
or the Territories of their constitutional rights, I would regard 
it as an act of revolution, and appealing to the first great law 
of nature, the law of self-preservation, I would urge the States 
to fall back on their sovereignty, and resist the power of the 
usurpation by every means necessary to secure their rights. 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS 75 

The Abolitionists are a sectional, a revolutionary, and fanatical 
party who have no respect for the Constitution and laws of our 
country or for the rights of their fellow-men. Our Southern 
agitators are alike sectional and revolutionary, and are now 
beginning in their meetings and speeches to show the same 
disregard for the Constitution and laws, and the same dispo- 
sition to violate the rights of others. Both claim rights superior 
to the Constitution and laws of the land, and claim the right 
to invade other people and despoil them of their property at 
whatever expense of human life and suffering. I denounce 
and defy them both, and appeal to the people to arrest the 
lawless career of each of them and restore our country to its 
former security. We expect Northern and Northwestern 
Democrats to resist the Northern sectionalism at whatever cost 
to themselves. They respond like pure patriots to our expecta- 
tion, and often fight the most hopeless battles for the Constitu- 
tion and the Union. We admire their self-sacrificing patriot- 
ism, and glory in their illustration of the pure principles of 
Democracy, and in that sublime grandeur of faithful integrity 
and moral courage which enables them to fight a hopeless battle 
bravely and meet defeat and proscription without a murmur, 
for the sake of maintaining such a government and such insti- 
tutions as ours. And now that the sectional storm lowers here ; 
now that sectionalism requires its victims here, who will go 
with me to the sacrificial altar if need be ? Who will prove with 
me that the Democrats in the South are as ready to make the 
sacrifices which we expect the Democrats in the North to make ? 
I know not what others may do, I only speak for myself; I 
will maintain the Constitution and laws of my country. I will 
maintain the moral law and the principles of justice. I will 
maintain the rights of the States and the liberties of the people. 
I will maintain the principles of economy in public expenditures 
and a strict accountability of all public officials. I will maintain 
the principles of the Democratic party in the construction of 
the Constitution, the powers of Congress, and the reserved 
rights of the States. I will resist sectionalism and revolution 
and fraud and force and wrong alike faithfully, whether they 
come from the North or from the South. 

I remained thus devoted to the Union until the Republican 
party obtained the control of the government and answered 
our appeals for the protection afforded by the Constitution, 



76 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

by saying they were in the majority and that we had to 
submit; thus proposing to substitute the will of a popular 
majority of the people of the Union for the Constitution 
of the United States, with its limitations on the powers of 
the Federal Government. I loved the American Union with 
a passionate devotion, and witnessed with an aching heart 
the unjust and unconstitutional crusade which led to dis- 
union and war. 

On the assembling of the 36th Congress in December, 
1859, a serious contest occurred in the attempt to elect a 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. The membership 
of the House was made up of three parties, the Republican, 
the Democratic, and the Know-Nothing or American. This 
situation was further complicated by the division of the 
Democrats into extreme States' Rights or Breckinridge, and 
the Squatter Sovereignty or Douglas Democrats. Neither 
party had a majority. The Republicans had a plurality, but 
not enough to elect. The Breckinridge Democrats embraced 
the great body of that party. 

On the first vote for Speaker, Thomas S. Bocock, Demo- 
crat, received 86 votes ; John Sherman, Republican, 66 votes ; 
Galusha Grow, Republican, 43 votes ; Thomas A. R. Nelson, 
American, 14 votes. The remaining votes scattered. On 
the second ballot, Mr. Sherman received 107 votes; Mr, 
Bocock, 88 ; Mr. Gilmer, 22 ; the balance scattering. On the 
third ballot, Mr. Sherman received no votes; Mr, Bocock, 
88; Horace Clark, Douglas Democrat, 20. On the fourth 
ballot, Mr. Sherman received 108 votes; Mr. Bocock, 86 
votes; Mr. Gilmer, American, 22. 

After the balloting for Speaker had continued one week, 
it was found that Mr. Bocock could not be elected and he 
withdrew his name as a candidate for that office. Late on 
Saturday evening, a committee composed principally of 
Democratic members, with Hon. John A. Gilmer of North 
Carolina, as their spokesman, called on me at my hotel and 
informed me that a meetinsr had been held at which it was 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS 77 

determined, if I would consent, to put me in nomination for 
the Speakership of the House, on the coming Monday. I 
stated to them that I had not such a national reputation as 
to warrant my selection for that position; that while I had 
some parliamentary experience, I had never made a study 
of parliamentary law and rules; that if I were nominated 
and elected on party lines I would be a minority Speaker 
and would be likely to be overruled at any time; and that 
for these reasons I should have to decline. 

On Monday morning I met the Hon. Horace Clark, who 
was a Representative from New York City, in the cloak room, 
before the House was called to order. He stated to me what 
he understood had occurred at the conference in my room on 
the previous Saturday evening; and that while he did not 
wish me to understand that he proposed a bargain, if I would 
agree to constitute the Committee on Territories with a 
majority of Douglas Democrats, and make him chairman of 
the Committee on Commerce, I could be elected Speaker by 
eight majority on the first ballot. I stated to him that I did 
not agree with the views of Senator Douglas as to the powers 
of Congress or a territorial legislature to exclude slavehold- 
ers from the Territories, the common property of all, while 
in a territorial condition, and had taken this position in the 
debates in the House ; and that to constitute a committee in 
opposition to my known views would subject me to criticism. 
"And," I added, "while you know my feelings of friendship, 
if by any chance I had been elected Speaker, there was no 
one whom I would have been more likely to appoint to the 
position you mentioned than yourself; now, however, after 
this conversation, if I should be elected Speaker, I could not 
make the appointment." 

After I took my seat on the floor of the House, -the Hon. 
James L. Pugh, a Representative from Alabama, lately a 
Senator in Congress, and now a resident of Washington, 
D. C, and the Hon. Lawrence M. Keitt, a Representative 
from South Carolina, came to me and stated what they had 



78 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

learned of the conversation between Mr. Clark and myself, 
which they must have learned from Clark himself, and 
advised me to accept his proposition, saying that if I did the 
Democrats would have control of all the committees but one. 
I suggested that if the knowledge of such a proposition 
should go to the country it would be condemned by the 
Democracy. With the votes of the Breckinridge Demo- 
crats, aided by the members of the American party, repre- 
sented by Gilmer, and of the Douglas Democrats, represented 
by Clark, I suppose my election would have been certain. 
And it was not until the first day of February that an end 
came to the struggle in the election of the Hon. William 
Pennington of New Jersey. Thus passed the possibility of 
my being the recipient of this high honor. 

In due course I introduced bills to make an appropriation 
for the support of a mounted regiment of volunteers for the 
defense and protection of the Texas frontier ; and to reim- 
burse the State of Texas for money theretofore paid out by 
that State for frontier defense. Later I introduced a joint 
resolution reciting Mexican and Indian depredations on the 
people of the Rio Grande frontier, and providing an appro- 
priation of $5,000,000 to be placed at the disposition of the 
President to assure the safety of that quarter. 

The most important matter which came before this Con- 
gress, apart from the sectional agitation, was the Pacific 
Railroad Bill. After examining it I felt obliged to oppose 
its passage in the form in which it was presented, because 
under its provisions men without investing a dollar could 
control the stock of the company and thereby enrich them- 
selves at the expense of the corporation, and before the work 
on the road was begun. I offered an amendment providing, 
among other things, that in any incorporation of the stock- 
holders of said company, to carry out the provisions of this 
act, no person should be permitted to subscribe stock to a 
greater amount than the cash value of his estate, to be deter- 
mined by the parties named in the act, or by the board of 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS 79 

directors as the case might be, by oath or otherwise; and 
providing for a board of directors who should succeed the 
stockholders in the management of the company; and open 
stock books, the share to be $ioo; and that no one person 
or firm should be allowed to subscribe for more than 
$500,000 of the stock, and that five per cent, of the stock 
so subscribed should be paid in cash to the company at the 
time of taking the stock. 

I discussed the provisions of the bill at great length, and 
among other things said : 

I have adopted in my substitute the names embraced in the 
original bill (of stockholders) . I have not intended to interfere 
with objects of the committee in framing the bill, except to 
adopt a new principle of action with regard to the persons who 
shall have the future control of the road. I submit the amend- 
ment in good faith, and I believe it is founded on principles that 
will commend themselves to the whole House. Of course it 
will be understood that if a railroad bill is to pass for the con- 
struction of only one road, I should desire to see that road go 
over what is called the southern route, believing it, as I do, the 
cheapest road to build, the one that would pay best after it was 
built, and one which, on account of it not being blocked by 
snows in winter, would extend more accommodation than any 
other to the whole nation. I have not made an amendment 
proposing the southern route — my colleague has already offered 
an amendment for that purpose. 

In this same speech I said : 

I will state some of the reasons which have induced me to 
adopt this course. The committee's bill invests arbitrarily and 
absolutely, in the particular persons whom they have entrusted, 
the franchises of this great work, the control of the work. 
The public lands, and the government subsidies, are given to 
them, and the control and direction of the private capital which 
may be invested for the purpose of completing the work. We 
have no means of knowing whether the men the committee 
have selected are railroad men, or men of character and means. 
I do not know but they may be men of the strictest probity. I 
presume they have been selected because they are ; but there 



80 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

exists no reason, if this corporation shall prove beneficial to 
themselves, why these franchises should vest in them exclu- 
sively more than in any other set of men. It is not known 
that they will invest one dollar of their own capital in this 
enterprise; and if they invest anything, it is not known how 
much. Others may furnish the entire private capital for carry- 
ing on the work, but still the entire control of the enterprise is 
vested in these particular men, without reference to the interests 
of the Government, without reference to the interests of com- 
merce, and without reference to the private capital employed 
in the construction of the work. Now, what I propose to do is, 
not to defeat the plan of the committee, but rather to carry it 
out. My proposition is, to vest these franchises not in men 
who are not stockholders of the concern, but in those men who 
pay their own money for the purpose of securing the success 
of the enterprise. 

Again I said : 

The great object of this amendment is to adopt what I regard 
as a sound policy in respect to the rights and powers to be 
vested in the corporators, and in respect to having the fran- 
chises of the work placed in the hands of men who furnish the 
capital. I desire to avoid those speculative influences which 
have prevented the success of at least one important railroad 
enterprise within my knowledge, by the control being placed in 
the hands of men who have no money to invest, and whose 
whole object is to make a speculation out of the charter. 

The measure, somewhat amended, was eventually passed ; 
and its corrupt history proved that I was right in opposing it. 

My speech delivered in Congress on the 15th of January, 
1 86 1, sets out fully the reasons why I could not remain in 
that body. It was intended to show how fully and 
clearly the Southern members of Congress, and the Southern 
people, realized the trouble likely to follow the success of 
abolitionism and the precipitation of the "irrepressible con- 
flict." This speech was made without previous special 
preparation or notes and was printed without being revised 
by me, and tens of thousands of copies of it were subscribed 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS 81 

for and circulated by Senators and Representatives. It was 
made in reply to the speeches of my friends McClernand of 
Illinois, and Cox, then of Ohio. I said among other things : 
"These two gentlemen have been recognized as able leaders 
of the States' Rights and strict construction Democracy, but 
now when our devotion to those doctrines is to be main- 
tained by a severer test, they abandon them and become 
a tail to the abolition kite." Before I left the hall Mr. Cox 
came to me with the words, "What you said about McCler- 
nand and myself was very bad and I wish you would strike 
it out of the Record." To this I answered, — for I entertained 
a very strong friendship for both of them, — "As we shall 
probably never meet again unless it is on the battlefield, I 
will strike it out," and I went to the reporter and requested 
him to omit this statement from the Record. 

I saw Mr. Cox no more until during the National Demo- 
cratic Convention which met in Baltimore in 1872, when 
Horace Greeley was nominated for the Presidency. He left 
his seat with the New York delegation and came to where I 
sat with the Texas delegates, and as he approached me, ex- 
tended his hand and said, "I examined the Record the next 
morning and you had struck it out." 

We served together in the House several years after the 
war, and kept up an occasional correspondence to the time 
of his death, as good friends; and I learned after being 
liberated from prison at Fort Warren, that General McCler- 
nand had twice visited Washington in his endeavor to secure 
my release; and we, too, kept up an occasional correspond- 
ence as long as he lived, and were strong personal friends. 
I put him in nomination for Speaker of the House in the 
46th Congress. 

I showed, too, in my speech of January 15, that the people 
of the South desired the perpetuation of the Union and the 
preservation of peace if these could be had under conditions 
which would maintain the rights of the States and of the 
people. Up to this time I had been an ardent Unionist, 



82 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

denouncing all schemes and views favoring its disruption, 
whether they came from the North or the South. But when 
we were told that we must submit to the violation of the 
Constitution, the overthrow of the rights of the States and 
the destruction of three thousand million dollars worth of 
property in slaves, — property recognized by the Constitu- 
tion, Federal and State laws, and by the decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, — I could no longer 
agree to such a Union, and determined to join in any measure 
which might defeat it. 

The student of history may find it interesting now, in the 
light of the past, to read this speech, which is reprinted in 
another part of this work.* If it is found to be defective in 
point of composition, I ask that it be remembered that it was 
an extemporaneous address, delivered without notes, and not 
revised. 



*See Appendix A. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Causes of the War Between the States 

This question cannot be fairly discussed without a refer- 
ence to historical facts more or less remote. George 
Bancroft, in his History of the United States (Vol. I, p. 
159) says : "Slavery and the slave-trade are older than the 
records of human society : they are found to have existed 
wherever the savage hunter began to assume the habits of 
pastoral or agricultural life; and, with the exception of Aus- 
tralasia, they have extended to every part of the globe. They 
pervaded every nation of civilized antiquity." 

Slavery existed among the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the 
Babylonians, the Phcenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and, 
until later years, in every modern civilized nation on earth. 
At the time it was planted in the American colonies it was 
justified by the priesthood on the ground that it was taking 
the Africans from a condition of barbarism and cannibalism 
to where they could learn useful vocations, the methods of 
civilized life, and something of the Christian religion. 
Slavery was introduced into the American colonies long 
before the American Revolution by the people and crowned 
heads of Great Britain, France and Spain, and by the Dutch 
merchants. At the date of the Declaration of Independence, 
African slavery existed in all the colonies; and at the 
adoption of the Constitution, in all the States but Massa- 
chusetts. The Constitution of the United States, devised 
by the patriotic fathers, who, by their skill, courage and 
endurance won our independence, contained the following 
provision on that subject : 



84 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several States which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be de- 
termined by adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 

The same article further provides that : 

The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be 
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight ; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such 
importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

Thus was provision made for a continuance of the slave- 
trade for twenty years after the adoption of the Constitution. 
Another clause reads : 

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of 
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service 
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due. 

This w^as clearly intended to give the sanction of the 
Constitution to the right of the ow^ner of slaves to recapture 
them if they escaped and to control their persons and labor. 
I quote these clauses of the Constitution to show that the 
institution of African slavery was recognized by it as lawful, 
and was protected specially by its terms ; and for the further 
purpose of showing that if slavery was a sin it was a national 
sin, and that the whole nation was responsible for its exist- 
ence, and that if the Constitution had permitted it to be 
abolished it should have been done at the cost of the nation. 
But, in fact, the Congress had no power, under the Consti- 
tution, to abolish it. It had always been treated as a domestic 
and local institution, which the several States might abolish 
or retain, independently of the power of Congress; and it 
had been abolished by a number of States. 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 85 

It must be understood that I am not discussing the ques- 
tion of whether slavery was right or wrong; and certainly 
not with a view to its revival; but some consideration of the 
legal status of the institution must of necessity precede what 
I shall say about the war between the States, and is essential 
to a fair and just understanding of the causes of that great 
struggle. 

As time wore on the people of the Northern States found 
slavery to be unprofitable and sold their negroes to the 
planters of the South, where they could be more profitably 
used on the cotton, tobacco, and sugar plantations. Subse- 
quent to the American and French Revolutions, the opinions 
of the people of western Europe and of the United States 
changed on the subject of slavery, and Great Britain and 
France freed their slaves in the West India islands; and 
these islands have ever since remained in a chronic condition 
of revolution. 

The slavery question early began to be discussed in the 
United States, and anti-slavery societies were formed; and 
societies for the colonizing of negroes in Africa were or- 
ganized especially in the Southern States. A few persons 
manumitted their slaves, mostly in the South, and in a few 
instances they were to be made free at a certain age. The 
agitation of the question soon assumed a sectional character 
and brought about a more or less violent agitation. This 
caused Northern politicians to seize upon it as a means of 
obtaining popular favor, and caused the people of the South 
to cease the discussion of the question except to defend it. 
There was indulged much unreasoning fanaticism by the 
enemies of slavery following this, and the agitation pro- 
duced sectional parties North and South, and became a real 
danger to the Union. It should be borne in mind that in 
the discussion of this question, the abstract right of man to 
personal liberty was substantially the only question con- 
sidered. The Abolitionists would not discuss the question 
of race or its fitness and capacity for civilization and self- 
government. 



86 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In 1856 the anti-slavery men were organized into a sec- 
tional political party and nominated John C. Fremont of 
California for President, and William L. Dayton of New 
Jersey for Vice-President. These candidates received 114 
electoral votes, all from Northern States ; while James Buch- 
anan of Pennsylvania and John C. Breckinridge of Ken- 
tucky, the Democratic candidates, received 174. and were 
elected. Encouraged by this evidence of strength, in i860 
the anti-slavery party nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illi- 
nois for President and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for 
Vice-President ; and this ticket secured exclusively from the 
Northern free States 180 votes, and was elected, John C. 
Breckinridge receiving 72 electoral votes, John Bell 39, and 
Stephen A. Douglas 12 (though he received a very large 
popular vote) . From this it is seen that the slavery question 
had become strictly sectional, as between the North and the 
South. During the struggle over the fugitive slave law 
fourteen of the Northern States had passed what they called 
"personal liberty" laws, making it a penal offense for any 
officer or citizen to return or aid in returning a fugitive 
slave to his master ; thus attempting to nullify the provisions 
of the Constitution, which they had taken an oath of office 
to support, and defying the acts of Congress and the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on this 
great question. And here I quote the following extract from 
a speech delivered by the Hon. W. H. Seward, in the city of 
Boston on the 27th of August, i860, during the canvass for 
President and Vice-President, within less than three months 
of the time at which Lincoln and Hamlin were elected to 
the positions of President and Vice-President of the United 
States. This quotation is made to show that Seward, one 
of the most pronounced leaders of the Republican party, and 
Lincoln, who was elected President by that party, were dis- 
tinctly committed to the doctrine that there was a higher 
law than the Constitution of the United States, on which 
they relied to secure its overthrow. And it is quoted to 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 87 

show that these two great leaders of that party were in full 
harmony of view with the members of the State legislatures, 
which had passed the "personal liberty" laws to nullify the 
provisions of the Constitution and laws, and the decisions of 
the courts on this subject. Mr. Seward said : 

What a comment upon the wisdom of a man is given in this 
single fact, that fifteen years only after the death of John 
Quincy Adams, the people who hurled him from power and 
from place, are calling to the head of the nation, to the very seat 
from which he was expelled, Abraham Lincoln [enthusiastic 
applause], whose claim to that seat is that he confesses the 
obligation of that higher law [applause] which the sage of 
Quincy proclaimed ; that he avows himself for weal or woe, for 
life or death, a soldier on the side of freedom in the irrepressi- 
ble conflict between freedom and slavery [prolonged applause]. 
This, gentlemen, is my simple confession. I desire, now, only 
to say that you have arrived at the last stage of this conflict, 
before you reach the triumph which is to inaugurate this great 
policy into the Government of the United States. But let not 
your thoughts and expectations be conflned to the present hour. 
I tell you, fellow-citizens, that with this victory comes the end 
of the power of slavery in the United States. 

And I make the following quotation from the speech of 
Mr. Chase, delivered before the Peace Congress, which 
assembled in Washington City on the 6th of February, 1861. 
Among other things, he said : 

Aside from the territorial question — the question of slavery 
outside of slave States — I know of but one serious difficulty. 
I refer to the question concerning fugitives from service. The 
clause in the Constitution concerning this class of persons is 
regarded by almost all men. North and South, as a stipulation 
for the surrender to their masters of slaves escaping into free 
States. The people of the free States, however, who believe 
that slaveholding is wrong, cannot and will not aid in the 
reclamation, and the stipulation becomes, therefore, a dead 
letter. You complain of bad faith, and the complaint is re- 
torted by denunciations of the cruelty which would drag back 
to bondage the poor slave who has escaped from it. You, 



88 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

thinking slavery right, claim the fulfilment of the stipulation ; we, 
thinking slavery wrong, cannot fulfil the stipulation without 
consciousness of participation in wrong. Here is a real difii- 
culty, but it seems to me not insuperable. It will not do for us 
to say to you, in justification of non-performance, "the stipula- 
tion is immoral, and therefore we cannot execute it" ; for you 
deny the immorality, and we cannot assume to judge for 
you. On the other hand, you ought not to exact from us the 
literal performance of the stipulation when you know that we 
cannot perform it without conscious culpability. A true 
solution of the difficulty seems to be attainable by regarding 
it as a simple case where a contract, from changed circumstances, 
cannot be fulfilled exactly as made. A court of equity in such 
a case decrees execution as near as may be. It requires the 
party who cannot perform to make compensation for non- 
appearance. Why cannot the same principle be applied to the 
rendition of fugitives from service ? We cannot surrender — but 
we can compensate. Why not then avoid all difficulties on all 
sides and show respectively good faith and good will by pro- 
viding and accepting compensation where masters reclaim 
escaping servants and prove their right of reclamation under 
the Constitution? Instead of a judgment for compensation, 
determined by the true value of the services, and let the same 
judgment assure freedom to the fugitive. The cost to the 
national treasury would be nothing in comparison with the evils 
of discord and strife. All parties would be gainers. 

Mr. Chase soon afterward was made Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States by Mr. Lincoln, who later 
elevated him to the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. His speech is a deliberate statement, 
from one of the ablest and most distinguished men of the 
Republican party, that they repudiated and would not 
comply with the provision of the Constitution requiring the 
rendition of fugitive slaves. He says that "the people of 
the free States believe that slaveholding is wrong, and will 
not aid in their reclamation, and the stipulation [of the 
Constitution], therefore, becomes a dead letter." He also 
says, "You [the people of the South] ought not to expect 
from us the literal performance of the stipulation" of the 
Constitution. The compact of Union, without agreeing 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 89 

to which the Union could not have been formed, the Con- 
stitution which the President, the Secretary of the Treasury 
and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and every other high officer of the United States 
and of the State government had to take and did take a 
solemn oath to support, was disregarded, along with the 
acts of Congress and the decisions of the highest courts, 
because of the modern opinion of a political party, that 
these were all based on immorality. Can one well conceive 
of a more dangerous and startling excuse for violating the 
fundamental law, destroying the social and industrial system 
of fifteen States of the Union, and the sacrifice of three 
thousand million dollars of property in slaves ? 

But Mr. Chase proposed to substitute for the provisions 
of the Constitution a compromise by paying for the slaves. 
He could not be, and was not, ignorant of the fact that the 
members of his party, in the Congress which preceded the 
election of Lincoln as President, would not consent even 
to discuss or to consider the question of paying for the 
liberation of the slaves. He knew, as we were all made to 
know, that the anti-slavery party had not the most remote 
intention of paying for them. And his speech, in this respect, 
was but the pitiable attempt of a really able man to cover 
up an unconstitutional proceeding marked by all the badges 
of hypocrisy and bad faith. 

These facts show that Seward and Chase, the two greatest 
leaders of a great and then dominant political party, just 
entering upon the control of the Government of the United 
States, were engaged in teaching their party what would 
appear to be treason by a palpable and intentional over- 
throw of the Constitution, a nullification of the acts of 
Congress, and a contemptuous disregard of the highest 
courts, intending to change the character of the Government 
by revolutionary methods. 

Mr. Seward, one of the prominent Republican candidates 
for the Presidency, and one of the most influential members 
of that party, who became Secretary of State under Lincoln, 



90 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

had declared that the slavery question presented an 
"irrepressible conflict.'' Later, Abraham Lincoln, who in 
time became President, declared that the "country could not 
remain half free and half slave." That could only mean 
that the agitation must go on until the people of the non- 
slaveholding States could secure the abolition of slavery by 
unconstitutional means ; for there was no other way by which 
their purpose could be accomplished. 

This agitation caused the inauguration of a civil war in 
Kansas, in which many lives were lost and much property 
destroyed. John Brown, who had obtained a bad notoriety 
in Kansas, went back to the Northeast and organized an 
armed band of revolutionists from the Northern States, with 
which he invaded the State of Virginia for the purpose of 
inaugurating a servile war between the white and black 
people, with all the barbarism and cruelty which would of 
necessity be engendered by such a war. They fortified 
themselves at Harper's Ferry, in that State. A few persons 
were killed and Brown and some of his associates were cap- 
tured, tried in the civil courts, condemned and hanged for 
treason. The Northern people, instead of condemning the 
dreadful crime of Brown, in a number of instances draped 
their churches in mourning and spoke of him as a martyr; 
showing their approval of this treasonable and revolutionary 
invasion of the South. 

During the Congress which immediately preceded the war, 
thirty-odd compromise measures were presented in the two 
Houses of Congress, all of them offered by Southern men or 
Northern Democrats, for the purpose of trying to get some 
plan adopted by which war and secession could be avoided, 
and the rights of the States preserved. Every one introduced 
in the House of Representatives was received with hooting 
and derision by the Republicans. When the Southern mem- 
bers appealed to those from the North to aid them in some 
measure of peace which would preserve the Constitution and 
preserve the rights of the States and of the people of the 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 91 

South, such appeals were answered by the statement, ''We 
are in the majority and you will have to submit." The 
Southern members and the Southern people did not want 
secession — they only sought the protection which was due 
them under the provisions of the Constitution. The Southern 
people had always shown their devotion to the Union, even 
while the New Englanders were threatening secession and 
disunion. 

I have gone through with the statement of some of the 
facts of history, in order to do my part in dealing with what 
were the opinions and practices of the whole world as to 
slavery, and to fix the responsibility for that great war and 
the enormous destruction of life and property where it 
properly belongs, and to show that it was forced on the 
South by a revolutionary movement for the purpose of 
overthrowing so much of the Constitution as protected 
slavery, and so much of it as concerned the question of 
States' Rights and States' Sovereignty. But they were also 
influenced by other great and controlling questions relating 
to the industrial and financial affairs of the country, as I 
shall show further on. 

It has been assumed and is assumed by those who were 
our adversaries that it was an unnecessary war, and that 
it was brought about by political leaders in the South. I 
think the facts I have presented show that the rights and 
sovereignty of the States, and the social and industrial 
systems of the South, and property, valued at about three 
thousand million dollars, were dangerously menaced by 
the policy and action of half the States and two-thirds of 
the white population. Even with all this threatened wrong, 
the South sought by every means in its control to avoid an 
unequal war. The people of the South had no organized 
government, they had no army, no navy, no treasury, and 
the most limited means for creating any of these, as the South 
had not been a manufacturing country. In attempting to 
withdraw from the Union they hoped to do so peaceably 



92 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and had no purpose to interfere in any way with any of the 
rights of the Northern States. They simply desired to with- 
draw from association with a government which had already 
demonstrated its deadly hostility to the rights and interests 
of their citizens; and to establish for themselves a govern- 
ment friendly to their own interests. Those who were our 
adversaries have never dared, so far as I know, to discuss the 
incidents which preceded and led up to the war. The whole 
public record is against them. They limit what they have 
to say to what occurred during the war, and to a fraudulent 
pretense that they were fighting for the old flag and to pre- 
serve the Union. Doubtless hundreds of thousands of sol- 
diers were made to believe this great falsehood, and were 
engaged in what they believed to be a patriotic war ; but the 
great leaders of opinion who gave form and force to the 
policy and movements which caused the war, either did so 
as reckless political demagogues or for the purpose of pro- 
ducing a condition of things which they knew would inevi- 
tably cause war. Such will no doubt be the conclusion of the 
impartial historian after the passion and prejudices of that 
struggle shall have died away. Fortunately for the truth of 
history, all of the material facts which show the causes lead- 
ing to the war are so far matter of record as to give the 
people of after times its true account. 

I quote the following paragraph from Dr. Curry's Civil 
History of the Confederate States, as it expresses better 
than I could the sentiments which come into my mind after 
writing the foregoing : 

One of the most singular illustrations ever presented of the 
power of literature to conceal and pervert, to modify and 
falsify history, to transfer odium from the guilty to the 
innocent, is found in the fact that the reproach of disunion has 
been slipped from the shoulders of the North to those of the 
South. 

To illustrate the opinions of the American people, and the 
policy of the Government of the United States in the past, 
in addition to the quotations from the Constitution, and the 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 93 

reference to the acts of Congress, and opinions of the 
Supreme Court referred to in former pages, it may not be 
inappropriate to state the following historical facts : 

General Washington, who commanded the armies during 
the war which separated this country from Great Britain, 
was the president of the convention which formed the Con- 
stitution of the United States ; he was chosen by the people 
as the first President, and served in that office for two terms, 
eight years ; and he was understood to be the largest owner 
of slaves in the United States. Mr. Jefferson, who was 
President eight years; Mr. Madison, who served as Presi- 
dent two terms ; Mr. Monroe, who filled the office two terms ; 
General Jackson, who served as President eight years ; Mr. 
Polk, four years; and General Taylor, who was elected 
President and died during his term of office, were all slave- 
holders. Many Senators and Representatives in Congress, 
many governors of States, many justices of the Supreme 
Court, circuit and district courts of the United States, many 
high State officials, including legislative and judicial officers, 
were slaveholders. Thousands of Christian men and women, 
as devout and sincere as any on earth, including ministers of 
the gospel, were slaveholders. The more fanatical of those 
who were engaged in the crusade against slavery denounced 
slavery as a sin, as the sum of all villainies, and must there- 
fore have held that all the great and good men and women 
I have just referred to were wicked, sinful, and villainous. 
Is this just and reasonable? 

It is proper to say that before the slavery agitation became 
sectional and political, numbers of slaveholders and others 
in the Southern States questioned the policy of slavery; a 
few set their slaves free; others favored the colonization of 
the negroes in Africa; and many felt that it was a bad 
inheritance from which they did not see how they were to be 
relieved. The system of slave labor was gradually giving 
way in the border slave States, such as Maryland, Kentucky 
and Missouri; and if the people of the Southern States had 



94 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

not been subjected to the fanatical crusade which precipi- 
tated war, slavery would probably have slowly and finally 
disappeared in all of them. 

The slaves in the United States before the war were esti- 
mated to be of the property value of three thousand million 
dollars. This property was acquired under the authority of 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, and of the 
States where it existed. Under such conditions was it 
patriotic, was it just, was it reasonable for the people who 
did not own slaves, — citizens of States where slavery did not 
exist, which States and citizens had no right or authority 
over the matter in States where it did exist, and where it was 
protected under the Constitution and laws. Federal and 
State, — to attempt to interfere or to control it? On this 
question the States, and the people of different States, had 
no more right to interfere with each other than if they had 
belonged to different nations. 

After the South had been forced into a war by the uncon- 
stitutional and unlawful course of the North, the people of 
the North assumed, and now insist, on so falsifying history 
as to make it appear that the war was the result of Southern 
policy. Surely in the face of the recorded history of the 
past, this attempted great fraud cannot stand the test of 
time and of impartial examination. 

On a previous page I suggested that there were other 
controlling causes of danger to the perpetuation of the Union 
besides the question of slavery. I shall content myself by a 
general statement of some of these causes, without elabora- 
tion, as they form a part of the public general history of the 
country. 

In the convention which formed the Constitution there 
was a serious division of opinion among its able and 
patriotic members as to the character of the government 
they v/ere to establish. A number of the leading statesmen 
of that day, with Thomas Jefferson as their leader, favored 
a reversal of the old-world theory that political sovereignty 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 95 

resided in the head of the government, and that the people 
were the subjects of that sovereign, insisting that the people 
were citizens and not subjects; that sovereignty resided 
in the citizens, who had the right to make, alter, or amend 
their form of government as they chose; that they pos- 
sessed sufficient intelligence and virtue to create, organize, 
and so administer the government as to secure protection to 
life, person, and property and to maintain order in society; 
and that public officers were public servants. There were 
other able and patriotic statesmen of that time, with Alex- 
ander Hamilton at their head, who doubted the capacity of 
the people for self-government, and who believed a strong 
government should be formed for the purpose of giving 
protection to life, person, and property, with power to control 
refractory States; a government somewhat on the plan of 
the English government, omitting royalty and aristocracy. 
Looking to the history of the past, and remembering that 
the plan of self-government, as proposed, was an experiment, 
it is not surprising that these dififerences of opinion should 
have then existed. The aim of one of these parties was for 
the largest liberty of the people, consistent with the main- 
tenance of good government, and to limit the powers of the 
Federal Government to jurisdiction over such matters as 
related to international questions, and to questions of inter- 
state policy, leaving the States with sovereign jurisdiction 
over all local and domestic questions. The other party 
favored a government with larger and more general powers. 
Those who favored limiting the powers of the Federal 
Government succeeded in getting their views imbedded in 
the Constitution. 

After the adoption of the Constitution opinions remained 
divided between those who favored a strict construction and 
those who favored a latitudinarian construction of it. This 
division, under one and another name, has continued down 
to the present time; first as Federalists and Republicans, 
afterward as Democrats and Whigs, and later as Demo- 



96 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

crats and Republicans. Neither of these antagonistic parties 
has ever been willing to accord to the other fidelity to the 
Union. The danger arising from these divisions, while 
remote in the past, has ever been present, and now threatens 
the safety of the Union, under the Constitution, more seri- 
ously than at any former time. 

The jurisdiction of Congress has been greatly enlarged 
by the Republican party. Some of its measures in legisla- 
tion, and in the attempt at legislation, have gone much 
beyond anything proposed by the early Federalists. The 
late President Garfield, in a speech delivered in the House 
of Representatives during the session of Congress preceding 
his nomination for the Presidency, declared his preference 
for the theory of General Hamilton rather than that of Mr. 
Jefferson. After that declaration he was nominated and 
elected President by the Republicans. The current action of 
that party shows that it favors a centralized general govern- 
ment. One of its boasted achievements, as a result of the 
war, is that it destroyed the doctrine of States' Rights. That 
means that it claims to have enlarged the powers of the 
Federal Government beyond what was intended by the Con- 
stitution, and that it has correspondingly abridged the 
powers of the State governments. This lets in on us a brood 
of mischiefs which may prove fatal to our constitutional 
government and to civil liberty. 

Other causes which threatened the perpetuity of the Union 
grew out of the jealousy and selfishness of the New England 
States. When the United States in 1803 acquired the 
Louisiana Territory those States protested vehemently 
against its acquisition, partly on the ground that it would 
give a preponderance to the agricultural States over the 
manufacturing States; and they threatened to secede from 
the Union. In the bhndness of their jealousy, they seemed 
unable to realize that the larger the area of free trade within 
the Union the more extensive would be the market for their 
manufactured goods. They no doubt now understand that. 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 97 

The war of 1 812-15 with Great Britain was engaged in by 
the United States perhaps more for the protection of the 
shipping interests and the commerce of that section of the 
Union, and to protect their seamen from unlawful impress- 
ment by the British cruisers, than for any other single cause. 
The people of New England opposed that war, encouraged 
the British, and called a convention to consider whether they 
would not withdraw from the Union. When the question 
of the admission of Missouri into the Union was being con- 
sidered, they again urged the view that its admission would 
increase the power of the agricultural States to the disad- 
vantage of the manufacturing States, and again they 
threatened to secede from the Union. The same contention 
was made when Texas was admitted; and again when the 
treaty of 1848 between the United States and Mexico was 
being considered, which contemplated the cession of a con- 
siderable part of the territory of Mexico to the United States, 
as indemnity for the expenses of the war brought on by the 
acts of the Mexican Government. 

A chief purpose of the manufacturers and capitalists of 
New England was to control the financial policy of the Gov- 
ernment so as to advance their pecuniary interests. In 
1831-32 they had so far succeeded through unjust tariff 
legislation, as to drive South Carolina into nullification, and 
came near involving the Country in a war; which was only 
averted by a gradual reduction of the tariff. 

On the several points here suggested, and to show what 
the views of the people of that portion of the Country were 
as to the right of a State for sufficient cause to secede from 
the Union, I make the following quotation from an address 
delivered by the Hon. John H. Rodgers, one of the judges 
of the district court of the United States, at a Confederate 
reunion at New Orleans, in May, 1903: 

"An assemblage of citizens of Boston in Faneuil Hall in 1809, 
state, in a celebrated memorial, that they looked only to the 
State legislatures, who were competent to devise relief against 



98 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the unconstitutional acts of the General Government. 'That 
your power is adequate to that object is evident from the 
organization of the Confederacy.' " 

Here is distinctively recognized the doctrine that each sover- 
eign State has a right to judge alone of its own compacts and 
agreements. This must, of necessity, be true unless the right 
to interpret the compact or agreement has been waived, or the 
power conferred upon another. This language of Madison is 
buttressed by the acts of ratification of the Constitution by 
some of the States. Virginia said in her ratification act : 

"The delegates do in the name of Virginia declare and make 
known that the powers granted under the Constitution of the 
United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same 
shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every 
power not granted thereby remains with them at their will." 

New York was even more specific, and Maryland and other 
States showed equal concern in jealously safeguarding the 
sovereignty of the States. 

In the prior history of the country repeated instances are 
found of the assertion of the right of secession and of a purpose 
entertained at various times to put it into execution. Notably 
is this true of Massachusetts — indeed, of all New England. 
In 1786, when the States were bound by the Articles of Con- 
federation, we are told that the situation was "dangerous in the 
extreme." The agitation in Massachusetts was great and it 
was declared that if Jay's negotiations, closing the Mississippi 
for twenty years, could not be adopted, it was high time for 
the New England States to secede from the Union and form a 
confederation for themselves. 

Plumer traces secession movements in 1792 and 1794, and 
says, "All dissatisfied with the measures of the government 
looked to a separation of the States as a remedy for oppressive 
grievances." 

In 1794 Fisher Ames said: "The spirit of insurrection has 
tainted a vast amount of country besides Pennsylvania." 

In 1796 Governor Wolcott of Connecticut said : "I sincerely 
declare that I wish the Northern States would separate from 
the Southern States the moment that event [the election of 
Jefferson] shall take place." 

Horatio Seymour, on October 8, 1880, in a public address in 
New York City, thus spoke: "The first threat of disunion 
was uttered upon the floor of Congress by Josiah Quincy, one 
of the most able and distinsfuished sons of Massachusetts. 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 99 

At an early day Mr. Hamilton, with all his distrust of the 
Constitution, sent word to the citizens of Boston to stop their 
threats of disunion and let the government stand as long as it 
would. When our country was engaged with the superior 
power, population, and resources of Great Britain, when its 
armies were upon our soil, when the walls of its capitol were 
blackened and marred by the fires kindled by our foes, and our 
Union was threatened with disaster, the leading officials of 
New England threatened resistance to the military measures of 
the Administration. This was the language held by a conven- 
tion of delegates appointed by the legislatures of three New 
England States and by delegates from counties in Vermont: 
Tn cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infraction of 
the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State, and 
liberties of the people, it is not only right but the duty of such 
State to interpose for their protection in the manner best cal- 
culated to secure that end. This covers the whole doctrine of 
nullification.' I may add, it covers the whole doctrine of 
secession, for it recognized the right of the State to determine 
when infractions of the Constitution have occurred, and to 
apply their own remedies." 

The men who uttered these threats, which gave "aid and 
comfort" to the enemies of this country while they were burn- 
ing its capitol, were held in high esteem. To this day the 
names of George Cabot, Nathan Dove, Roger M. Sherman, 
and their associates are honored in New England. 

The acquisition of Louisiana, in 1803, created much dissatis- 
faction throughout New England, for the reason, as expressed 
by George Cabot, Senator from Massachusetts, and the grand- 
father of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (in whose Life of 
George 'Cabot the statement is made) : "That the influence of 
our (northeastern) part of the Union must be diminished by 
the acquisition of more weight at the other extremity." At 
the time secession, or the separation of the States, was freely 
discussed with no suggestion of any idea among its advocates 
that it was treasonable or revolutionary. 

Colonel Timothy Pickering, an officer in the Revolution, 
afterwards Postmaster-General, Secretary of War, and Secre- 
tary of State in Washington's Cabinet, and afterwards for 
many years a Senator from Massachusetts, was also a leading 
secessionist in his day. In Lodge's Life of Cabot his letters 
to Senator Cabot reveal his convictions of the power in a sover- 
eign State to sever its connection with the Union. In one of his 



100 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

letters, written in 1803 to a friend, he says : "I will not despair. 
I will rather anticipate a new Confederacy, exempt from cor- 
rupt and corrupting influences and oppressions of the aristo- 
cratic Democrats of the South. There will be (our children at 
the farthest will see it) a separation. The white and black 
population will mark the boundary." 

In another letter he says : "The principles of our Revolu- 
tion point to the remedy — a separation ; that this can be accom- 
plished without spilling one drop of blood, I have little doubt." 

Other quotations to the same point, found in the letters of 
Colonel Pickering, might be given. The occasion forbids. Such 
were his views of the nature of the compact under the Constitu- 
tion. ,He was a revolutionary patriot, a friend and associate 
of Washington, and a trusted servant, during many long years, 
of Massachusetts. 

In 181 1, in the debate of the bill for the admission of Louis- 
iana into the Union, Josiah Quincy, a member of Congress 
from Massachusetts, said : "If this bill passes, it is my delib- 
erate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union ; 
that it will free the States from moral obligation, and as it 
will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some definitely 
to prepare for that separation, amicably if they can, violently 
if they must." 

Cabot, Quincy, and Pickering were strong Federalists, not 
misguided advocates of States' Rights, but friends of a strong, 
centralized Federal Government. 

All of us know of the Hartford Convention, held in 18 14, 
growing out of the war with Great Britain, in which were 
representatives regularly elected by the legislatures of Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and representatives 
irregularly chosen from New Hampshire and Vermont. They 
sat with closed doors, but it is known that their object was 
the discussion of the expediency of those States withdrawing 
from the Union and setting up a separate Confederation. They 
determined upon its expediency then, but published to the world 
the conditions and circumstances under which its dissolution 
might become expedient. 

In the years 1844-45, when measures were taken for the annex- 
ation of Texas, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a reso- 
lution that: "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, faithful 
to the compact between the people of the United States, accord- 
ing to the plain meaning and intent in which it was understood 
by them, is sincerely anxious for its preservation ; but it is 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 101 

determined, as it doubts not the other States are, to submit to 
undelegated powers in no body of men on earth; and that 
the project for the annexation of Texas, unless arrested on 
the threshold, may tend to drive these States into a dissolution 
of the Union." 

I need offer no apology for making this long quotation, 
which fully sustains my briefer reference to important facts 
of history ; and shows very conclusively that the people of 
that part of the Union now entertain very different views as 
to the right of a State to secede, from those they formerly 
advocated. Their arguments of late years, on this question, 
would convict their fathers of threatened revolution and 
treason, which would seem to be rather unfilial ; and creates 
a suspicion of hypocrisy, and can hardly be classed as politi- 
cal honesty. 

It is a noteworthy fact that while the representatives of 
the other States disapproved and condemned these threats 
of secession, they never denied the right of a State to secede 
when there was no other remedy against wrongs and oppres- 
sions. 

I could wish to be dealing in recitals of a more pleasant 
character, but the foregoing facts are a part of the history 
of the times with which I have to deal; and if they are not 
of as cheerful a nature as might be desired, it must be 
remembered that it is the facts themselves, and npt the recital 
of them, which may be disagreeable. If the action of the 
people of New England, at the time mentioned, was patriotic, 
the action of the people of the South from 1861 to 1865 must 
also have been patriotic. If the people of the South from 
1 86 1 to 1865 were rebels and traitors, those of New England 
must also have advocated rebellion and treason. 

In the end the alternative was offered to the Southern 
people to submit to all this, to surrender the protection of the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, and to become 
the degraded and dishonored victims of Northern fanaticism 
and abolitionism and avarice, or to secede from the Union 



102 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and form a government friendly to their own rights and 
interests. They chose the latter alternative, and, after one 
of the most heroic struggles known to history, and such a 
sacrifice of life and property as has hardly been equaled in 
any war, they failed to maintain their independence and sepa- 
rate nationality, and were doomed to pass through all the 
crime and horror of the years of Reconstruction. And they 
are now citizens of a country governed by a party which has 
enlisted under its banners the corporate wealth of the banks, 
the railroads, the manufacturing establishments, the great 
trusts ; and instead of a constitutional government resting on 
great principles, and controlled by patriotic citizenship, we 
have a government largely outside of the Constitution, con- 
trolled by class interests and money, and labor organizations ; 
with a contest between capital and labor as to which shall be 
the master, and get the most money from the people. 

Notwithstanding the horrors of the war between the 
States, the crimes and robberies of Reconstruction, the annul- 
ment of the State governments of the South, the disfran- 
chisement of the white race, and the enfranchisement of the 
negro, the people of the South have reestablished civil gov- 
ernments, revived their industries, and restored prosperity 
for their people. Hard as their fortune has been in the past, 
they have accepted the new conditions, and hope for the 
restoration of constitutional principles of government, and 
for the maintenance of popular liberty. The Constitution 
once covered and protected the people wherever the Ameri- 
can flag floated, but now by the action of Congress and the 
decisions of the Supreme Court its flag covers vast extents 
of territory and ten millions of people where the Army and 
Navy carry it, but where the inhabitants are not under 
the government and protection of the Constitution. For 
some purposes they are in the United States, and for other 
purposes they are aliens ; a condition and a policy which indi- 
cate that Congress and the Supreme Court consider the Con- 
stitution of the United States unconstitutional. 



CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 103 

When we consider the departures from the Constitution 
since the year i860, the increase of the jurisdiction of Con- 
gress, the growth and expenditures of the Federal Govern- 
ment, no thoughtful man can fail to feel a sense of anxiety 
and fear for the future of the great Republic. I shall not 
object to the criticism these thoughts will subject me to, if 
they shall in any degree have the effect of directing attention 
to the dangers which now lie before us. 



CHAPTER IX 
Organization of the Confederate Government 

Shortly after the deHvery of my protest against the 
measures proposed by Congress concerning the South, I left 
my seat and started for Texas. This was toward the end of 
January, 1861. My conduct finds its excuse in the hard 
logic of the situation; for it had become apparent that the 
people of the Southern States could no longer expect the 
protection of the Constitution. AVhen we appealed to the 
Republicans to grant our rights under the Constitution, they 
answered by saying, "We have the majority, and you must 
submit." It soon came to the point that I felt I could not 
sit with them and retain my self-respect and be faithful to 
the rights and honor of the people I represented. 

When I reached New Orleans, I learned that I had been 
elected a member of the Texas State Convention ; and instead 
of going to my home, I w^ent to Austin, the capital, where 
the convention was to meet. I arrived there on the morning 
of the third day of the session. At the breakfast table I met 
several members of the convention; and inquired whether 
any effort had been made to secure the cooperation of the 
State administration with the convention. I was answered 
in the negative, with the added statement that they feared 
Governor Houston would not receive any overture in a 
friendly spirit, he being opposed to the secession of the State 
from the Union. My relations with him were such that I 
felt we could confer freely together on the matter, and soon 
after breakfast I called on him at his office in the Capitol, 
and informed him that I had come to ascertain whether 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 105 

cooperation could be had between the State government and 
the convention on the subject of the course which should be 
adopted by our State. 

After he disposed of some routine business, he invited me 
into his private room, where we at once entered upon this 
subject. In answer to some suggestions of mine, he said. 
"You know I am a Union man and opposed to secession." 
I replied that I knew he was, but that the sectional trouble 
had reached the point where individual opinions might have 
to yield to the necessities of the State. He replied, "The 
people are going to war on the question of slavery, and the 
firing of the first gun will sound the knell of slavery." My 
answer was that many persons thought there would be no 
war, that the commercial and manufacturing interests of 
the North and East would cause them to oppose a war, and 
that it was thought these same interests abroad, especially 
in Great Britain and France, would cause them to use their 
influence for peace. His reply to me was that the passions 
and prejudices of the North would provoke them to disre- 
gard these material interests; that Great Britain had been 
for forty years working to stimulate sectional hostility 
between the North and the South, looking to the disruption 
of the Union; that she desired this because of her jealousy 
of the great Republic, and because a war with us would 
enable her to build up her cotton planting interests in India ; 
and that the people of France were still more opposed to our 
system of government, and war here would give that nation 
time to strengthen its cotton planting interests in Algeria. 

During the war on several occasions I recalled his predic- 
tion when reading the newspapers of London and Liverpool, 
which it was understood reflected English sentiment; and I 
called the attention of the President and Cabinet more than 
once to the fact that when the Confederates won a victory 
these journals seemed to favor the Federal side, and that 
when the Federals were victorious, the Confederates were 
flattered. 



106 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In the further course of our conversation I referred to 
President Houston's commanding position in Texas and the 
South, and to the fact that at a time of such peril they had a 
risfht to look to him for counsel. He answered that he had 
been born and reared in the South, that his honors had all 
come from that section, and that while he was opposed to 
secession, he would not draw his sword against his own 
people. 

On the 2d day of February the convention passed an ordi- 
nance dissolving the connection of Texas with the Govern- 
ment of the United States; and a few days later delegates 
were elected to a Provisional Congress, which had been 
called by the seceding States of South Carolina, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. I was one 
of those chosen, and was associated with Louis T. Wigfall 
and John Hemphill, ex-United States Senators, T. N. Waul, 
John Gregg, and W. B. Ochiltree. 

My absence from home during the session of Congress and 
the convention at Austin rendered it imperative that I should 
go there on my way to Montgomery, and because of this 
delay I reached that place after the other delegates. 

On February 4, 1861, the convention of the Southern 
States met in Montgomery, and on the 8th of February it 
adopted a provisional Constitution. This was followed by 
the adoption of a permanent Constitution on the nth of 
March, creating a new government, which was styled "The 
Confederate States of America." On the 9th of February 
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected President, and 
Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, Vice-President. 

Mr. Davis was a graduate of the Military Academy at 
West Point, had served a number of years as a commissioned 
officer in the Army of the United States, and after resigning, 
for some years had engaged in the management of his plan- 
tation, and in the study of the physical sciences. He was 
elected to the Congress of the United States, was offered by 
President Polk an appointment as brigadier-general in the 




^--->2^^^^^-^-<^^.^z^-!L^^x2:^^-2-<:/ 



FACING PAGE 1 06 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 107 

war with Mexico, which was decHned on the ground that 
under the Constitution he beheved the officers of the volun- 
teer forces should be elected by those they were to command. 
He resigned his seat in Congress to accept the command of a 
regiment of Mississippi rifles. In the war he distinguished 
himself by his courage and especially by the celebrated V 
formation in the Battle of Buena Vista, where he received 
a severe wound. Returning home he was soon afterward 
appointed United States Senator. In the Cass and Taylor 
campaigns of 1848 he was chosen Presidential elector on the 
Democratic ticket. In 1853 he resigned his place as Senator 
to accept the appointment of Secretary of War under Presi- 
dent Pierce. At the end of his service as Secretary of War 
he was again elected to the Senate of the United States, 
which position he resigned on the passage of the ordinance 
of secession by the State of Mississippi. He had acquitted 
himself with distinguished ability and fidelity to duty in every 
official and private relation.* On the 6th of November, 1861, 
he was elected President of the constitutional government of 
the Confederacy, for the term of six years, and was inaugu- 
rated on the 22d of February, 1862. 

Vice-President Stephens, a distinguished citizen of the 
State of Georgia, and a lawyer of prominence, represented 
many years one of the districts of that State in Congress, 
exhibiting ability of a very high order and being ranked as 
one of the ablest debaters in that body.^ 

President Davis selected the Hon. Robert Toombs of 
Georgia for the position of Secretary of State. He had 
served for many years the people of Georgia, with much 



*After the war, President Davis crowned the great labors of his 
eventful life by writing and giving to the public his history of the 
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, in two volumes, and 
his short history of the Confederate States of America, a most valu- 
able exposition of the cause and the conduct of the war between the 
States. 

t Vice-President Stephens, like President Davis, rounded the labors 
of a useful and distinguished life by writing and publishing in two 
volumes a history of the War Between the States. 



108 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

distinction in both the House of Representatives and the 
Senate of the United States. Mr. Toombs was a man of 
massive intellect, strong will, and of very clear and deep 
convictions on public questions. He was the peer of the 
ablest in the Senate of the United States. 

The Hon. C. G. Memminger of South Carolina was made 
Secretary of the Treasury. He was a capable and learned 
man, one of the leading lawyers of his State, and an experi- 
enced and able financier. Added to this, he was a real 
Christian gentleman.* 

The Hon. Leroy Pope Walker of Alabama became Secre- 
tary of War. He was a talented lawyer and an earnest 
patriot, and became one of the hardest working members of 
the Cabinet. 

The Hon. Stephen R. Mallory of Florida was made Secre- 
tary of the Navy. He was an accomplished scholar, a promi- 
nent lawyer, and an amiable, excellent man. He had served 
his State in the Senate of the United States for many years, 
much of the time at the head of the committee on naval 
affairs. His was a very difficult position to fill, as it required 
of him the creation of a naval establishment in the absence, 
in a large measure, of the necessary materials, and with the 
very limited manufacturing facilities of the Confederacy. 
His achievements in this respect were greater than could have 
been expected, f 

Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana was appointed Attorney- 
General. He ranked with the best lawyers of the United 
States, and served with marked distinction the State of 
Louisiana in the United States Senate. He was a learned 
and most eloquent advocate. After the war he went to Eng- 
land, wrote a book on the law of Contracts, and had con- 
ferred on him the honor of being made Queen's Counselor. 

* Since his death fifsliap Capers of South Carolina has given to the 
public The Life and Times of C. G. Memminger, which, among other 
matters, sets forth much valuable information about the finances of the 
Confederacy. 

tSee the Confederate Navy, by Thomas Scharf. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 109 

I did not arrive at the seat of government until after the 
election of the President and Vice-President; but took an 
active part in the later proceedings. 

When I reached Montgomery I called on the President, 
and in our conversation said to him that if I had been present 
at the election I should not have voted for him ; not, however, 
because I distrusted his fitness for the high office, but because 
I wanted him at the head of the army. This position, he 
confessed, would have been more agreeable to him. I added 
that I should not have voted for Mr. Stephens, because it 
was the first time I had known of a people embarking in a 
revolution and selecting as one of their leaders a person 
known to be opposed to it. 

On March 6, much to my surprise, President Davis ten- 
dered me the portfolio of Postmaster-General, which I 
declined ; and a second tender was also declined. It had been 
previously offered to Mr. Ellet of Mississippi, who had been 
for eight years a prominent member of the Congress of the 
United States, and to Col. Wirt Adams, a distinguished 
citizen of the same State. I feared to undertake the role. 
Mr. Davis informed me that Mr. Ellet and Mr. Adams had 
both declined for the very reasons which had influenced my 
conclusion. After I had declined the second time, I was 
called on by several members of the Congress, among them 
Gen. T. N. Waul of Texas, and Hon. J. L. M. Curry of 
Alabama, later of Virginia, and was requested to accompany 
them to see the President. After reaching the Executive 
Office, the question of the appointment of a Postmaster- 
General was brought up, and I was urged by these members 
of Congress, and by the President and his Cabinet, to accept 
the position. My objection was, that our people under the 
Government of the United States had been accustomed to 
regular postal facilities; that when the service under that 
Government came to an end, it would require considerable 
time to reestablish such a service, and that in the mean time 
dissatisfaction would arise on account of the want and 



110 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

necessity of mail facilities, and that this would most likely 
be supposed to arise from the incapacity of the head of that 
department ; and that while I would gladly perform my duty 
to the Confederacy, I did not desire to become a martyr. It 
was insisted that we must not concede that there was a 
department of government which we could not organize. 
The President and the members of his Cabinet, and the 
members of Congress who were present, stated that if I 
would accept the portfolio they would do all they could to 
aid me and sustain me against any unjust criticism. I very 
reluctantly consented to accept the position, and on retiring 
from this meeting, instead of feeling proud of the honor con- 
ferred on me, I felt that I was to be condemned by the public 
for incapacity. 

Thus, then, was constituted the Executive machinery of 
a government which was about to undertake problems the 
like of which the world has perhaps never seen. 

The attempt to organize and to administer the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States, in view of the disadvantages 
under which it was made, growing out of the disparity of 
population, wealth and resources, was a severe trial upon the 
wisdom, the courage and the endurance of her people. That 
conflicts of opinions should have arisen between those 
charged with the responsibility for this great movement was 
to have been expected. But in common fairness there ought 
to have been no other conflicts as to the facts involved, than 
such as may have grown out of the different view points of 
those concerned, or out of defects of memory. It is to be 
regretted that differences have grown up between able and 
good men who sustained the Confederate cause. And it is 
to be feared that these conflicts of opinion have not in all 
cases shown all the parties to them to have been free from 
ambition, jealousy and selfishness. It is unfortunate that 
patriotic men devoted to a cause so sacred should have mis- 
understood one another, and it is much more unfortunate 
that they should have so far yielded to passion and to preju- 
dice as to indulge in misrepresentation. 






^^ 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 111 

I am led to these observations because of what seemed to 
me to be studied misrepresentations of President Davis and 
his Cabinet on important pubHc questions. 

First. It was assumed by Vice-President Stephens, by 
Governor Brown of Georgia, by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
and others, that the failure of the Confederate Government, 
at the beginning of the war, to purchase all the cotton in the 
Confederacy, and ship it abroad, to be used in buying ships 
and war material, showed that the President and Cabinet did 
not understand or realize the gravity of the situation of the 
Confederacy, and failed to make use of this means of success. 

Second. That President Davis by his instructions to the 
Hampton Roads Commissioners caused the failure of that 
conference to agree to terms of peace, and that this made him 
responsible for the continuance of the war, the sacrifice of 
life and property, and sufferings of the people which fol- 
lowed. 

Third. That the President favored and approved the 
law of conscription of 1862, which it was alleged was unnec- 
essary, unwise and unconstitutional. 

Fourth. That President Davis was self-willed and arbi- 
trary, and extreme, and refused or rejected the prudent 
counsels of others. 

I do not wish to be understood as assuming that these were 
the only grounds of criticism of the President and his Cabi- 
net ; but refer to them as the points chiefly relied on by that 
class of persons who sought to discredit and bring into disre- 
pute his administration of the Confederate Government, both 
during and after the war. 

I W'ill consider the above stated questions in the order 
named. 

First. The President and Vice-President of the Confed- 
eracy were elected on the 9th of February, 1861, some days 
before the arrival of Davis at Montgomery, Alabama, the 
temporary capital of the Confederacy. The Provisional 



112 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Congress of the Confederacy was assembled on the i8th day 
of February, 1861. The organization of the Cabinet was 
not completed until the 6th of March, 1861. Mr. Horace 
Greeley, who was a very earnest advocate of abolitionism, 
and a strong Union man, denied the authority of the Federal 
Government to coerce the States. During the first session 
of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy the Nezv 
York Herald favored the adoption by the United States of 
the Constitution of the Confederacy as the best means of 
reconciliation and of avoiding a war. And General Winfield 
Scott, at the head of the Army of the United States, was 
reported to have said, "let the erring sisters go," meaning 
the Southern States. 

The postal service and the express companies of the United 
States remained in full operation in all the Southern States 
until the first of June, 1861, when they were succeeded by 
the service under Confederate authority. On the 26th of 
February, 1861, President Davis appointed Messrs. A. B. 
Roman of Louisiana, Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, and 
John Forsyth of Alabama, as Commissioners to the Govern- 
ment of the United States, with authority to negotiate for a 
peaceful settlement of all questions between the Confederate 
and the United States Governments. On the 13th of March. 
1861, Commissioners Forsyth and Crawford submitted to 
Secretary of State Seward an offer for the peaceful adjust- 
ment of the differences between the two governments, which 
was rejected by Seward. I make the foregoing statements 
to show that up to the time of the conflict at Charleston Har- 
bor, April 13th, 1 86 1, hopes were still being entertained that 
war might be averted; and that, therefore, no foresight, up 
to that time, could have pointed to the necessity of the Con- 
federate Government endeavoring to get control of the cotton 
in the Southern States. 

In order to show the injustice and the unreasonable char- 
acter of the charge that the Confederate authorities were 
derelict in failing to control the whole or even the greater 
part of this cotton I submit the following facts : 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 113 

Bishop Capers in his history of the hfe and times of the 
Hon. C. G. Memminger, who was Secretary of the Treasury 
of the Confederacy, referring to the criticisms of Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston of the Confederate authorities, says : 

The substance of General Johnston's charge is that the failure 
of the Confederate cause was due to the failure of its finances ; 
that the Government failed to adopt the true financial policy, 
which was easy enough to do, and "generally understood in 
the country." Having made this very remarkable charge the 
General proceeds to unfold his plan as follows. 

The government was organized in February, and he states 
that the blockade of the Southern ports, though proclaimed 
in May, was not made "effective" until the end of the following 
winter — a period of twelve months — in which "it would have 
been easy" to ship and convert into money four or five million 
bales of cotton, etc. 

It must certainly surprise the reader when he looks into this 
grave proposition that the four or five million bales of cotton 
had no existence except in the fancy of the General. The 
total crop of 1 860-61 was officially reported as 3,849,000 bales. 
Of this 3,000,000 bales had been exported up to February, 
the month when the Confederate Government was organized, 
and 600,000 bales were in the hands of the New England spin- 
ners, the seed for the next crop (1861-62) not being yet in the 
ground. It is needless to examine into the merits of this scheme 
any further. Granting that the cotton did exist in the Southern 
States, it would have been impossible, as Mr. Memminger 
clearly shows, to have shipped any large quantity of it. So 
that the whole charge of failure of the financial policy by 
General Johnston resolves itself into a fleet of phantom ships 
loaded with phantom cotton. This singular charge has only 
been noticed on account of the high source from which it ema- 
nates, and because of the currency which the idea has obtained 
among a class of critics. 

I make the following quotation from the answer of Secre- 
tary Memminger to the charges of General Johnston : 

Charleston, March 'Z'j, 1874. 
To THE Editor of the News and Courier: 

I observe by your paper of yesterday, which extracts a pas- 
sage from General Johnston's book, that he follows the ancient 



114 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

example of our forefather Adam, in casting the fault of a gen- 
eral calamity on some other person. He attributes the failure 
of the Southern Confederacy to the blunder of the Government, 
at its first institution, in not possessing itself of the cotton crop 
then in the hands of the planters. This cotton (according to 
the General) should have been shipped in anticipation of the 
blockade, and it would then have furnished a basis for future 
credit. As I was at that time in charge of the Treasury Depart- 
ment, the responsibility of this failure would rest chiefly on 
me; and you will therefore not consider it out of place that I 
should correct misapprehensions which seem to have misled 
yourself as well as General Johnston. 

In this connection we should bear in mind the facts herein 
stated, which show that there was not sufficient reason to 
obtain the cotton, because of the possibility of avoiding war 
until after the 13th of April. And the blockade having been 
put in force in May would leave less than a month in which 
to have obtained and sent abroad so large a quantity of 
cotton. I quote again from this letter of Secretary Mem- 
minger : 

This would have required a fleet of four thousand ships, 
allowing one thousand bales to a ship. Where would these 
vessels have been procured in the face of the notification of 
the blockade, and was not as much of the cotton shipped by 
private enterprise as could have been shipped by the Govern- 
ment? 

I cjuote again from Memminger s letter : 

At the commencement of the Government the Treasury had 
not funds to pay for the table on which the Secretary was 
writing ; and the first purchases of the Government made abroad 
were made on the private draft of the Secretary. There was 
not to be found, in the whole Confederacy, a sheet of bank 
note paper on which to print a note. Forecasting this need, 
the Secretary had ordered from England a consignment of 
note paper and lithographic materials, the vessel containing 
which was captured on the high seas ; and many of the friends 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 115 

of the late Colonel Evans, of our city, will remember that he 
nearly lost his life in the attempt to bring across the lines a 
single parcel of note paper. It is within the memory of the 
printers of these notes, that months elapsed before bonds or 
notes could be engraved and printed ; and these constituted our 
entire currency. How, then, was cotton to be paid for ? 

And when the mechanical difficulties were overcome, the 
financial presented an equal barrier. The scheme for raising 
money, adopted by Congress, was to issue Confederate notes, 
funding the redundant notes in interest-bearing bonds; and 
all payments at the Treasury were made with these notes. The 
daily demands on the Treasury exceeded greatly the means of 
supply. Now, if instead of applying the notes to the daily 
payments required at the Treasury they had been used to pur- 
chase cotton, the Treasury would have found itself filled with 
cotton, without any money to meet the wants of the Govern- 
ment until that cotton could be shipped and sold. 

If instead of payment in notes the bonds of the Government 
had been used to purchase the cotton crop, those bonds would 
have been thrown in the market to meet the necessities of the 
planters, and their value as a means of funding the surplus 
currency would have been destroyed. It is obvious to any one 
acquainted with finance that this would have broken down the 
Confederacy currency within the first year of its existence, 
whereas the plan pursued sustained the credit of the Con- 
federacy until broken down under calamities by which no credit 
could survive. 

The question of the purchase of the cotton for the use of 
the Government was fully discussed and considered by the 
President and Cabinet ; and for reasons like those suggested 
by Secretary Memminger, and for others, it was held to be 
impracticable to attempt to secure the whole cotton crop, or 
even that part of it which remained in the hands of the 
planters, after the 3,000,000 bales had been exported, and 
after 600,000 bales had gone into the hands of the New 
England spinners, up to the time of the organization of the 
Confederate Government ; except to purchase so much of the 
cotton as could be obtained and shipped through the 
blockade. A good deal of the cotton (I cannot give the 



116 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

approximate amount) was so obtained, paid for by the notes 
or bonds of the Confederacy, and shipped to Europe for the 
purchase of arms and other suppHes and to meet the neces- 
sities of the Government for funds to be used by our agents 
abroad. 

Other important facts are shown in the volume above 
quoted, which shows the silly absurdity of the attacks made 
on the Government on this account. 

These attacks were encouraged by Vice-President 
Stephens, and industriously urged by a few persons who 
seemed to suppose it to be necessary to defame the President 
and his Cabinet in order to increase the reputation of Mr. 
Stephens for statesmanship. And they succeeded in deceiv- 
ing many others who had no such purpose in view, and 
among them Gen. G. B. Gordon and Gen. Richard Taylor, 
who were induced to adopt the views of Stephens and Gen- 
eral Johnston on this question. 

Mr. Memminger was a man of great ability, an earnest 
patriot, and sincerely devoted to the cause of the Confed- 
eracy. And while his reports as Secretary of the Treasury 
show his thorough understanding of the questions involved 
in the management of the Treasury Department, the failure 
of Congress to second his views, in connection with the inhe- 
rent difficulties of the problem, caused him to resign the post 
of Secretary of the Treasury on the 15th of June, 1864. 

Second. Referring to the attacks on the President con- 
nected with the Hampton Roads Conference. I have fully 
demonstrated their absurdity and injustice in another part 
of this book, and need make no further reference to this in 
this connection. 

Third. When the Congress, during its first session at 
Montgomery, was preparing regulations for the organiza- 
tion of the Army of the Confederacy, because of the experi- 
ence of President Davis as an officer in the Army and as 
Secretary of War of the United States, the committee having 
bills for that purpose in charge, called on him with them, for 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 117 

his advice and assistance. The committee had proposed a 
bill for the enlistment of soldiers for the term of six months. 
Mr. Davis suggested to them that the term of enlistment 
should be made longer ; that it would require six months to 
train the raw infantry soldiers, and to inure them to camp 
life, and that it would require twelve months to make cavalry- 
efficient. He also stated to the committee that we could 
enlist as many men for the term of three years or during the 
war as we could arm and equip. It was urged by the mem- 
bers of the committee that by enlisting men for the short 
term of six months so many could be called into the service, 
as by their numbers to prevent a war. It was also assumed 
by them that one Southerner would be equal to two or more 
Northern men. To these suggestions Mr. Davis replied that 
we could not rely on the number of soldiers we might put in 
the field to prevent war. He also stated that while the men 
of the South were as a rule more ready to resent personal 
insult than those of the North, his experience caused him to 
say to them that in an army organization they had better 
recognize the necessity of man for man. He stated to the 
committee that by enlisting men for three years or the war 
they would provide for an army, and that we could get as 
many men as we could arm and equip. It was suggested that 
we would in all probability have a short war. His reply to 
this was that the war was more likely to last thirty years than 
to end in a short time, and that it might be we would not live 
to see the end of it. After discussing the matter all he could 
do was to induce the committee to provide for the enlistment 
of men for the term of twelve months. And such was the 
provision made for our army. 

In view of General McClellan's contemplated advance 
upon Richmond, and owing to the uncertainty as to whether 
he would move by the inland route, as had been done by his 
predecessors, or by way of the Chesapeake Bay and Fortress 
Alonroe, it was agreed, after a conference between the Presi- 
dent and General Johnston, that our army should fall back 



118 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

from the line of the Occoquan, and take position in Stafford 
County, in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, after taking time 
to move his army suppHes back, and after, by the use of 
barges in the night time, removing our heavy siege guns 
from Cock Pit Point on the Potomac, down to Aquia Creek. 
This movement was made in March, 1862. I may elsewhere 
say something of the ill advised and unnecessary haste with 
which this was done, involving as it did the useless destruc- 
tion of a large amount of army supplies. 

The first law of conscription passed by the Confederate 
Congress became effective on the i6th of April, 1862. It 
provided among other things for putting all the men of the 
Confederacy, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, 
into the military service, and for retaining in the service the 
men who had enlisted for twelve months, until the end of a 
three years' term, but under the conditions named providing 
for the reorganization, and for allowing them furloughs and 
the pay of bounty. In March, 1862, General McClellan put 
in motion his plan of concentrating his forces at Fortress 
Monroe. On the 6th of April, President Lincoln wrote him 
that he had an army of over 100,000 men. On May i 
General Johnston ordered the evacuation of Norfolk by our 
army. And on the loth of May the officers of the Navy 
abandoned and burned the Virginia. And when the great 
battle of Seven Pines, in front of Richmond, was fought on 
the 31st of May and ist of June, 1862, McClellan had an 
army of over 100,000, the Confederates 73,000. The Con- 
federates lost in the battle killed, wounded, and missing 
6,084. The Federal loss was 5,739- The greater loss of the 
Confederates was due to their attacking the Federals in their 
intrenchments. This battle was fought in the immediate 
vicinity of the capital of the Confederacy. Its safety 
depended on the result. 

In January, 1862, our forces had been defeated and Roa- 
noke Island lost, and Pamlico Sound opened to the enemy. 
The great battle at Corinth had been fought and lost on the 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 119 

6th of April, 1862, in which the aggregate of our killed, 
wounded, and missing was 10,697. 

I have made this recital in order to show the peril in which 
the Confederate cause was placed on the date at which the 
conscription law became effective, April 16, 1862. 

At that time the Confederate Army was composed chiefly 
of men who had enlisted for the term of twelve months, and 
the term of most of them would then soon expire. After the 
defeat of the Federal forces at Bull Run that Government 
recognized the necessity of a real army, and when General 
McClellan advanced on Richmond he had a thoroughly 
organized, equipped, and drilled force of 100,000 men. If 
our men were to retire at the end of their twelve months' 
service, our only hope would be to get together an army of 
raw, undisciplined soldiers to meet the great and well organ- 
ized and disciplined armies of the United States. 

This was the problem presented to the President and Con- 
gress. If Congress had adopted the views of Vice-President 
Stephens and Governor Brown of Georgia and a few others 
in opposition to the law of conscription, this would have 
caused an inglorious collapse of the Confederacy in 1862. 
Now, since our cause was lost, it may be said such a result 
would have prevented the great battles and loss of life and 
property which subsequently occurred. 

But was there a patriotic or a sane man in the Confederacy 
at that time, in view of what must have follow^ed such a 
result, who would have been willing to surrender our cause 
and our hopes without a further earnest and manly struggle 
for self-government, independence, and liberty? Either that 
or the enactment of the law of conscription was necessary. 
In view of the facts here presented, who is there that would 
say that law should not have been passed? Then as to its 
expediency. Its constitutionality was sustained by the 
decisions of the courts of several of the States. Among them 
was Virginia, in the case of Burrough vs. Pay ton and 
Abrams vs. Payton. In them the court said : "The conscript 



120 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

law is a legitimate exercise of the power of Congress to raise 
atmies, which is distinct from the power to employ the militia 
of the country." And the Supreme Courts of the States of 
Georgia and North Carolina made similar decisions. 

President Davis, in a letter in answer to the position of 
Governor Brown of Georgia, dated May 29th, 1862, which 
is too long to be copied here, demonstrates, with unanswer- 
able effect, the necessity, the constitutionality, and the wis- 
dom of the passage of that law. See his Rise and Fall of the 
Confederate Government, pages 506 to 514. 

Fourth. In reference to the charge that Mr. Davis was 
self-willed and arbitrary, and would not accept the advice of 
others, and was extreme in his views, I say that after an 
accjuaintance with him before the war, and after the war 
ended, and having confidential relations with him during 
that entire struggle, I think I am enabled to form a just 
estimate of his characteristics and the habits of his mind. 
My conclusion is that he had two characters — one for social 
and domestic life and the other for official life. In the first 
he was one of the most pleasant and genial men I ever knew, 
a remarkably agreeable conversationalist, and all women and 
children seemed instinctively to love him. In the second he 
was wholly given up to duty. When a subject came up for 
consideration, if important, his habit was to exhaust all avail- 
able sources of information before reaching a conclusion. 
The conclusion once reached, that ended it. I suppose one of 
the reasons why some have supposed him to be self-willed 
was because they sought to discuss with him questions upon 
which he had formed and expressed his opinion ; and because 
he would not re-discuss such questions, they assumed that he 
was arbitrary and self-willed. Any one knowing the great 
number of questions he had to pass on will understand why 
he could not consent to re-discuss questions already dis- 
posed of. 

As to his refusing to accept advice, I will give an example 
to show the error of this supposition. During the early part 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 121 

of 1863 the question was discussed between the President, 
his Cabinet, and Gen. R. E. Lee as to whether our army- 
should go north of the Potomac. General Lee favored such 
a movement. One of his reasons for it was that army sup- 
plies had become scarce south of that river, while they were 
abundant north of it. My own belief is that he favored such 
a campaign because he believed he commanded an invincible 
army, which had been victorious in so many great battles, 
and in all of them against greatly preponderating numbers 
and resources. At the same time we were considering the 
importance and necessity of holding Vicksburg and Port 
Hudson, and thereby preserving our communications with 
the States west of the Mississippi, which was a matter of 
serious consequence. 

In the Cabinet I opposed the plan of crossing the Potomac, 
and favored the plan of allowing General Lee to threaten 
such a movement, without executing it; and at the proper 
time for 25,000 or 30,000 of his army to be sent to reinforce 
General Pemberton at Vicksburg. This view was not 
favored by any other member of the Cabinet, and I had to 
give it up. While I had very decided views on this subject I 
had to yield. I could not expect, on such a question, to over- 
rule the opinion of great military men like President Davis 
and General Lee. After a time the President received dis- 
patches and letters from both military men and civilians in 
high authority, urging the reinforcement of Pemberton by 
sending to his relief a part of General Lee's command. Mr. 
Davis called the attention of the Cabinet to these communi- 
cations, and requested the members to meet him early the 
next day (Saturday) to consider the question so involved. 
This encouraged me. We met early the next day and 
remained in session until after dark in the evening, in the 
anxious consideration of the questions involved in the cam- 
paign of 1863. This ended by the conclusion that General 
Lee should cross the Potomac, and threaten Washington, 
Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and that Gen. J. E. Johnston 



122 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

should collect such forces and supplies as he could in the 
Gulf States and go to the relief of General Pemberton. I will 
not now repeat the expressions I made when this conclusion 
was reached. I went to my residence an unhappy man, for I 
believed we had made a great mistake. I could get no relief 
by talking even to my wife, remained restless till probably 
midnight before going to bed, and did not go to sleep that 
night. I got up before daylight and wrote a note to the 
President telling him in substance that I felt so strongly 
that we had made a great mistake that I had not slept during 
the night, and asking him to again convene the Cabinet and 
reconsider that question. Very early in the morning (Sun- 
day) I received his answer saying that he would reconvene 
the Cabinet the next day. It was not reconvened because 
before he had sent out his call for the Cabinet nearly all the 
members of it met in his office, and it at once appeared that 
it would be useless to attempt a further consideration of that 
subject. I have spoken of this more fully elsewhere. From 
this it is seen that after the deliberate consideration and 
decision of a great question the President was willing to 
reopen it for further consideration. 

In reference to the charge that Mr. Davis was extreme in 
his views I make the following quotation from a letter of the 
Hon. J. A. P. Campbell of Mississippi, a member of the Con- 
federate Congress : 

The idea that Mr. Davis was so extreme in his views is a 
new one. He was extremely conservative on the subject of 
secession. 

I also make the following quotation from a letter of the 
Hon. Duncan F. Kenner of Louisiana, who was a leading 
member of the Confederate Congress : 

Who should be President? was the absorbing question. No 
other name was mentioned; the claims of no one else were 
considered, or even alluded to. There was not the slightest 



ORGANIZATIOX OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 123 

opposition to Mr. Davis on the part of any of our delegation ; 
certainly none was expressed; all appeared enthusiastic in his 
favor, and, I have no reason to doubt, felt so. Nor was the 
feeling induced by any solicitation on the part of Mr. Davis 
or his friends. Mr. Davis was not in or near Montgomery at 
the time. He was never heard from on this subject, so far as 
I know. He was never announced as a candidate. We were 
seeking the best man to fill the position, and the conviction 
at the time, in the minds of a large majority of the delegates, 
that Mr. Davis was the best qualified, from both his civil and 
military knowledge and experience, induced many to look upon 
Mr. Davis as the best selection that could be made. 

This conviction, coupled with his well-recognized conserva- 
tive views — for in no sense did we consider Mr. Davis extreme, 
either in his views or purposes — was the deciding consideration 
which controlled the votes of the Louisiana delegation. Of 
this I have not the least doubt. 

One of the complaints sometimes made against Mr. Davis 
was that he was too conservative, adhered too closely to the 
letter of the Constitution and laws, and that it would be 
better for our success if he would give himself more latitude. 
His whole course of conduct showed him to be reasonable, 
conservative, and just. 



CHAPTER X 

The Confederate Post Office Department 

On the way to my hotel from the meeting with the Presi- 
dent, after I had accepted the office of Postmaster-General, 
I was thinking of how I might obtain the necessary 
information to enable me to organize the Department, when 
I met H. P. Brewster, Esq., a lawyer of ability and a brother- 
in-law of the late Senator Chestnut of South Carolina. I 
inquired of him if he was at leisure. He said he was. I 
asked him if he could go to Washington City for me. He 
said he could, and agreed that he would go at once. I 
requested him to come to my room at the hotel half an hour 
before train time, telling him that I would have his instruc- 
tions ready, and letters to some persons in Washington. 
Communication was then still open by mail and express 
between Montgomery and Washington. I told Mr. Brewster 
that I wished him to perform an important service, and one 
not free from danger. 

By the time Mr. Brewster called I had prepared letters to 
Senators Hemphill and Wigfall, who were still in Washing- 
ton; and other letters to Saint George Offit, chief clerk in 
the office of the Sixth Auditor; to Benjamin Clements, chief 
clerk to the Postmaster-General ; to Joseph Lewis, who was 
at the head of the bond division in the Post Office Depart- 
ment ; to Captain Schwartzman, who was at the head of the 
Dead Letter Office; to Mr. McNair of the finance bureau; 
and to Mr. Hobby, Third Assistant Postmaster-General, 
requesting them to come and accept positions in the Post 
Office Department of the Confederacy, and to bring with 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 125 

them copies of the last annual report of the Postmaster- 
General and every form in the Department, together with 
the postal maps of the Southern States. 

All the men in the Department at Washington, to whom 
I wrote, came to me, except Third Assistant Postmaster- 
General Hobby, and a clerk from Florida whose name I do 
not recall. They brought to me all the information neces- 
sary to enable me to organize the postal service of the Con- 
federacy, and also brought the postal map of Texas, but were 
unable to obtain the maps of the other Southern States. I 
instructed Mr. Brewster to have a part of the large books 
needed for the Department bound in Washington and for- 
warded to me at Montgomery by express. There was at the 
time the representative of a book binding company of New 
Orleans in Montgomery, who undertook to bind and furnish 
the principal part of the books for the Department and to 
send them by express. I had a few of the books bound in 
Montgomery. 

Soon after the arrival of the gentlemen from Washington, 
they were assigned positions, and I made such additional 
appointments as the necessities of the service demanded. I 
then organized a school for the purpose of enabling the 
officers and clerks to qualify themselves for their respective 
duties, and for my own information, with sessions in the 
Department building from eight to ten o'clock each evening. 
The necessary books for the use of the Department were 
soon received, and with the information brought from 
Washington, the appointment books were quickly made up, 
containing the names of all the postmasters under our juris- 
diction, with the amount of the receipts of their several 
offices, and showing whether they were draft or collection 
offices, and also showing the names and addresses of the 
route and special agents of the Department and the amount 
of compensation. 

At the same time we prepared the books of the contract 
office, showing all the mail routes under our control, the 
names of the contractors for carrying mail on each star route 



126 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and the contract price, the names of the offices to be supplied, 
and the Hke information as to all the contracts with railroad 
and steamboat companies for carrying the mails. We also 
prepared a complete organization of the finance bureau of 
the Department. As Congress was then debating the ques- 
tion as to whether the accounts of the Post Office Department 
should be audited by that Department or by the Treasury 
Department, we organized the bureau for the auditing of the 
accounts, so that if that duty devolved upon the Post Office 
Department, we should be ready for it; or if upon the Treas- 
ury, we could furnish that Department with our plan of 
organization. It was determined, I think rightly, to put this 
duty on the Treasury Department. 

Offices and furniture for the Department were obtained. 
The legislation of the Congress contemplated the organiza- 
tion of the Department on the same general plan and prin- 
ciples which were found in operation under the authority of 
the United States. In my first annual report it is stated that : 

To organize the Department so as to carry out the purpose 
had in view by Congress, to insure the continuance of our postal 
facilities in such manner as to meet the public necessities ; to 
avoid the suspension of the postal service until a new system 
could be adopted and put into operation, and to prevent a serious 
shock to the public interests by a temporary suspension of mail 
service, were the first questions to be considered by the Depart- 
ment. 

When the President determined to call Congress together 
in extra session in May, he requested the heads of the several 
Departments to furnish him with such data as would enable 
him to inform the Congress of the progress in organization 
which had been made. At the meeting of the Cabinet he 
called for the presentation of our reports, and I was able to 
state that the Post Office Department was as completely 
organized as that at Washington, with two proposed 
improvements, and that I was ready to inaugurate the postal 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 127 

service of the Confederacy. The President seemed to be 
surprised at this announcement, and inquired what I meant. 
I told him that I had the books made up for the appointment, 
the contract and the finance bureaus ; had also prepared the 
books for the bureau which might be required to audit the 
accounts of the Department ; and that if he desired it, I. would 
have such books as showed this brought for his inspection. 
He said, "No, I understand you; but," he added, "how were 
you enabled to do this?" I then explained what is shown 
by the foregoing facts. 

In my report in which I proposed to take charge of the 
postal service, I requested that the Congress authorize me 
by proclamation to continue in office the postmasters then in 
service under the Government of the United States, wherever 
they were willing to serve, until new appointments could be 
made, and to continue in the service those who had the con- 
tracts for carrying the mails under their existing rate of 
compensation, where they were willing to serve, until new 
contracts could be made. The Congress promptly gave me 
this authority, and I at once issued my proclamation. 

A draughtsman was obtained to make the necessary postal 
maps. The necessary blanks and forms (other than the 
blanks for the quarterly returns of postmasters), numbering 
more than two hundred, were prepared for the use of the 
Department. 

In my first report I stated : 

I have directed the classification and arrangement of the 
duties of the several bureaus of the Department with a view 
to the harmony and efficiency of its operation, and for the pur- 
pose of exhibiting a clear and concise statement of the number 
and character of the clerical force required by the Department. 
It will be seen that a force of eighteen clerks, in addition to 
the twenty heretofore allowed by Congress, will be necessary 
to carry on the business of the Department, and one watchman 
will be necessary for the security of the building. 



128 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Elsewhere in this report I note : 

The Department has advertised for bids for contracts for the 
supply of mail bags, postoffice blanks and paper for the same, 
wrapping paper, twine and sealing wax, circulars, marking and 
dating stamps, postage stamps and stamped envelopes, and for 
mail locks and keys. 

These bids were to be made by the first of May. And a 
contract was made for the printing of all blanks for the use 
of the Department. 

As illustrative of the measures resorted to to make the 
transition between the old and the new order of things as 
smooth as possible, parts of two circulars are quoted. The 
first reads : 

The Government of the Confederate States will not inter- 
fere with any existing contracts entered into between the Gov- 
ernment of the United States and the present contractors, 
until it assumes the entire control of its postal affairs. This 
course is rendered necessary by the utter impracticability of 
mixing the employees of the two Governments in the same 
service. 

The question as to whether the Government of the Confed- 
erate States will assume any liability to present contractors, 
before it assumes the control of our postal affairs, involves 
the idea of liability on the part of the Government for the obli- 
gations of the United States before the Department shall be 
organized and ready to enter into new contracts. I am author- 
ized to continue the existing contracts provisionally, by procla- 
mation, until new contracts can be entered into. 

The second circular dealt with other matters. It reads in 
part as follows : 

All postmasters and other employees of the postal service 
are directed to continue the performance of their duties as 
such, and render all accounts and pay all moneys to the order 
of the Government of the United States, as they have hereto- 
fore done, until the Government of the Confederate States shall 
be prepared to assume control of its postal affairs. 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 129 

The Congress of the Confederate States has, by act approved 
March 15, 1861, provided that the Postmaster-General shall 
have power to issue circular instructions to the several post- 
masters and other officers, in order to enforce the rendition of- 
proper accounts and payment of moneys collected by them for 
account of the United States, until the Postmaster-General shall 
have issued his proclamation announcing that the former service 
is discontinued and is replaced by the new service organized 
under the authority of this Government. 

Another paragraph in this proclamation I think may be 
quoted, as it shows another phase of the situation : 

We must regard the carrying of our mails at this time by 
that Government as a great public necessity to the people of 
both Governments, resulting from their past intimate political, 
commercial, and social relations, and alike important to the 
preservation of the present interests of the people of both coun- 
tries ; and while that Government, by its action, consults such 
considerations, our Government and its people should act with 
the same high regard for great public interests. Such a course 
on our part, springing from such motives, will preserve the 
character of our people without impairing the dignity of our 
Government, with far less injury to the people of both than 
would necessarily follow from precipitate action on the part 
of either. 

In the body of my first official report, all postmasters of 
the Confederacy are directed to perform their duties, render 
their accounts and pay over all moneys to the Government 
of the United States which might come into their hands as 
postmasters, until this Department should assume the entire 
control of the service. In that document also occurs the 
following : 

It was hoped that this course would have beneficial effects, 
by removing all doubts as to the duty, for the time being, of 
those engaged in the postal service, and by showing to the 
Government at Washington that so long as it continued to 
hold itself liable for the mail service in the Confederate States, 



130 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

it should receive all the revenues derived from that service. 
It was supposed, too, that it was greatly to the interests of 
that country, as well as to the interests of our own, to avoid 
a sudden suspension of the postal communication between the 
people of the two countries, and to avoid being brought at 
once into practical non-intercourse, which it was supposed 
would occur if this Department had been required to assume 
control of the service before its organization, and before any 
time had been given to pass the mail across the frontier. And 
when that policy was determined on, it was not known that 
active hostilities would occur, but it was then supposed to be 
still possible that our separation from the United States might 
be peaceably effected, and that all questions relating to the 
public property and to pecuniary liability between the two 
countries might be settled by them on terms of equality. 

This may sound strange now, but there was then some 
reason and some hope for this result, not less in the North 
than in the South, as I have before stated. 

My second official report, dated November 2y, 1861, con- 
tains the following account, which is self-explanatory : 

Under the provisions of the first section of the act of Con- 
gress of ]\Iay 9th, 1861, "To amend an act vesting certain 
powers in the Postmaster-General, approved March 15, 1861," 
the requisite authority was given to him to issue his proclama- 
tion, fixing the date on which he would assume control of 
the postal service. Pursuant to that authority, the following 
proclamation w^as issued on the 13th of May, fixing the first 
day of June for the commencement of the service : 

'^Whereas, by the provision of an act, approved March 15, 
1861, and amended by the first section of an act approved 
May 9, 1861, the Postmaster-General is authorized, on and after 
a day named by him for that purpose, to take entire charge and 
direction of the postal service of the Confederate States ; and 
all conveyance of mails within their limits, from and after 
such day, except by the authority of the Postmaster-General, is 
hereby prohibited : 

"Now, therefore, I, John H. Reagan, Postmaster-General 
of the Confederate States of America, do issue this proclama- 
tion, notifying all postmasters, contractors and special route 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 131 

agents, in the service of the Postoffice Department, and engaged 
in the transmission and deUvery of mails, or otherwise in any 
manner connected with the service, within the Hmits of the 
Confederate States of America, that on and after the first 
day of June, next, I shall assume the entire control and direc- 
tion of the postal service therein. And I hereby direct all 
postmasters, route agents and special agents, within these States, 
and acting under the authority and direction of the Postmaster- 
General of the United States, to continue in the discharge of 
their respective duties, under the authority vested in me by 
the Congress of the Confederate States, in strict conformity 
with such existing laws and regulations as are not inconsistent 
with tlie laws and Constitution of the Confederate States of 
America, and such further instructions as may hereafter be 
issued by my direction. And the said postmasters, route agents 
and special agents are also required to forward to this Depart- 
ment, without delay, their names with the names of the offices 
of which they are postmasters (giving the State and county), 
to be directed to the chief of appointment bureau, in order that 
the new commissions may be issued under the authority of 
this Government. And all postmasters are required to render 
to the Postoffice Department at Washington, D. C, their final 
accounts and vouchers for postal receipts and expenditures up 
to the 31st of this month, taking care to forward with said 
accounts all postage stamps and stamped envelopes remaining 
on hand, belonging to the Postoffice Department of the United 
States, in order that they may receive the proper credits there- 
for, in the adjustments of their accounts; and they are further 
required to keep in their possession, to meet the orders of the 
Postmaster-General of the United States, for the payment of 
mail service within the Confederate States, all revenue which 
shall have accrued from the postal service to the said first day 
of June, next. 

"All contractors, mail messengers and special contractors for 
carrying the mails within the Confederate States, under the 
existing contracts with the Government of the United States, 
are herebv authorized to continue to perform such service under 
my direction, from and after the day last named above, subject 
to such changes and modifications as may be found necessary, 
under the powers vested in the Postmaster-General by the 
terms of said contracts and the provisions of the second sec- 
tion of an act approved May 9, 1861, conformable thereto. And 



132 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

said contractors and special contractors and mail messengers 
are required to forward, without delay, the number of their 
route or routes and the nature of the service thereon, the sched- 
ules of arrivals and departures, the names of the offices sup- 
plied and the amount of the annual compensation for present 
services, together with their address, directed to the chief of 
the contract bureau. 

"Until a postal treaty shall be made with the Government of 
the United States for the exchange of mails between that Gov- 
ernment and the Government of the Confederacy, postmasters 
will not be authorized to collect United States postage on mail 
matter sent to or received from those States, and until postage 
stamps and stamped envelopes are procured for the payment 
of postage within the Confederate States, all postage must be 
paid in money, under the provisions of the first section of the 
act of March ist, 1861." 

The requirement was made that postmasters, acting under 
the authority of the United States and before the Postmaster- 
General of the Confederacy took the control of the postal 
service, should render their accounts to the United States, 
and pay to that Government all moneys up to the ist of June, 
1 86 1, and should return all postage stamps, stamped envel- 
opes, and other property pertaining to the postal service, 
except mail bags and locks and keys. This measure was 
necessary, if any adjustment of accounts was to follow the 
termination of hostilities and the coming peace, and was 
also necessary in order that there should be no time when 
they were not responsible to one Government or the other, 
and also because if they had not been held responsible in this 
way, the temptation to embezzle would have been offered and 
might have led to serious consequences. 

The Hon. Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General of the 
United States, issued his proclamation suspending the postal 
services in the States then composing the Confederate Gov- 
ernment, to take effect on the first day of June, the day on 
which the service was taken up by the Confederate authori- 
ties. Whether this was by accident or design, I am not 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 133 

informed, but I think it was most probably the result of a 
purpose to meet the equitable design mentioned in my 
proclamation, and in order to avoid a clash in the service and 
to maintain the responsibility and enforce the obligations of 
those connected with the postal service. 

I have thus given a partial view of the organization of 
the Post Office Department of the Confederacy, and will now 
give some facts in relation to its operation. 

The provisional Constitution of the Confederacy required 
the Post Office Department to be self-sustaining after the ist 
of March, 1863. The expenditures in connection with the 
mail service by the Government of the United States, for the 
year ending June 30, i860, in the States then under the con- 
trol of the Confederacy, amounted to $2,879,530.79, and the 
receipts into the Treasury from the same States for that year 
amounted to but $938,105.34, showing a deficiency of 
$1,941,425.45. With these figures before me, I could see 
but little hope of meeting such a deficiency, or of coming 
within the requirement of the Constitution above mentioned. 
The cost of the railway mail service for that year, in the 
same States, was $635,901, being nearly equal to the whole 
amount of receipts into the Treasury. As one means of over- 
coming this deficiency, I issued a circular on the 26th of 
April, 1 86 1, and had copies of it sent to the principal officers 
of all the railroad companies in the Southern States, calling 
attention to the requirements of the Constitution, and to the 
amount of the expenditures on account of the postal service 
in the previous year, and the receipts into the Treasury for 
the same year, and also to the cost of the railway mail service, 
and requested them to meet me in the city of Montgomery 
on an appointed day, "for the purpose of considering the 
means of reducing the cost of the railroad service, and 
with the view of having some general equitable under- 
standing with them." This call was responded to by all the 
railroad companies, with one or two exceptions. The mail 
pay they were then receiving was, for first-class railroads, 



134 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

$300 per mile, with twenty-five per cent to be added for 
night service; second-class railroads, $200 per mile; third- 
class roads, $100 per mile, with twenty per cent, more in each 
case for night service. This conference resulted in the rail- 
road companies patriotically agreeing to reduce the mail pay 
one-half, and to take the bonds of the Confederacy in pay- 
ment, but with the stipulation that they were not to be bound 
by these terms after the war ended. The rates of postage on 
letters, packages, and newspapers were raised ; the lowest rate 
of letter postage was five cents for one-half ounce. Unneces- 
sary mail routes were discontinued ; the number of trips on 
some routes were reduced ; the weight of the mails was 
lessened in consequence of the abolition of the franking privi- 
lege ; long routes were shortened so as to induce competition 
for carrying of mails; duplicate routes were discontinued, 
and in many cases cross routes were found unnecessary. 
By these and many other means, the cost of service was 
greatly reduced without seriously impairing its usefulness. 
I have before me a full set of my official reports. These 
reports were taken from me when I was made a prisoner of 
war, along with President Davis and others, on the loth of 
May, 1865. I am indebted to the kindness of Gen. Marcus 
J. Wright, and to the courtesy of the Postmaster-General of 
the United States for their recent return to me. These 
reports contain much valuable statistical information, and 
data on subjects connected with the administration of that 
Department which might interest the intelligent reader. 
However, I shall not make this chapter longer by calling 
attention to the estimates of receipts and expenditures of the 
Department from year to year, but I will state generally, that 
while these expenditures and receipts were increased as a 
number of States were added to the Confederacy, these 
reports show that this service was from the start made self- 
sustaining, and that each year from 1861 to 1865 there was 
annually a net increase of receipts over expenditures. 



THE CONFEDERATE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 135 

A noteworthy fact in this connection is that the number 
of officers and clerks in this service was not as great by one- 
half as for a like amount of service in the United States Post 
Office Department. It should also be observed that we did 
not have First, Second, and Third Assistant Postmaster- 
Generals as in the United States. Our officers corresponding 
to these were the Chief of the Contract Bureau, the Chief of 
the Finance Bureau, and the Chief of the Bureau of Appoint- 
ments. 

I shall not forego the opportunity — and I trust that my 
motives will not be misunderstood — to observe that there is 
much in these reports to suggest economy in the Post Office 
Department of the United States ; and I dare say, from recent 
divulgences, that this is greatly needed. I am informed that 
a thorough overhauling and revision of mail routes has been 
made but twice in the United States, once by Dr. Franklin, 
and once by Postmaster-General McLean. It would be a 
considerable undertaking, but if gone through with carefully 
and efficiently it would no doubt reduce the expenditures of 
the Post Office Department millions of dollars annually. 



CHAPTER XT 
The Struggle for Richmond 

On the 2ist of May, 1861, the Provisional Congress at 
Montgomery adopted a resolution to adjourn on the next 
Tuesday, to meet again July 20 at Richmond, Virginia. And 
the President was authorized to have the Executive Depart- 
ments with their archives removed in the mean time to the 
new seat of government. I thereupon directed the heads of 
the bureaus of the Post Office Department to have its offices 
and archives removed to Richmond ; and I returned to Texas 
to make the necessary arrangements for absence from my 
home, and to take with me my family to the new capital of 
the Confederacy, which place we reached the latter part of 
June. Henceforth, Richmond was to be the heart of the 
Confederacy, and her inhabitants were to give proof that 
never were braver, nobler souls engaged in Titanic struggle. 

The echoes of Fort Sumter had wakened the dogs of war, 
and throughout the North rang the cry, "On to Richmond" ; 
"Down with the traitors." We on our part responded as 
best we might, and were nothing fearful when the grand 
army of General McDowell swept across the fields of Vir- 
ginia. The tale of Bull Run was briefly told, and the Con- 
federacy was mightily cheered by the overwhelming victory. 
But that the war was ended, not one of the official circle 
imagined. Indeed, it was not long until the Army of the 
Potomac under Gen. George B. McClellan numbered 168,000 
men, while opposed to him Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had but 
41,000 effectives. But thanks to dilatoriness, there was no 
active campaign during the fall and winter, and we, by great 



THE STRUGGLE FOR RICHMOND 137 

exertions, were enabled to increase our strength by the spring 
of 1862, when the Federals once more made ready to advance 
on Richmond, so that at the battle of Seven Pines our army 
numbered approximately 70,000, while the Federals had but 
100,000. 

At first we were in great doubt as to which line of advance 
McClellan would adopt, and toward the end of February 
General Johnston retired from his advanced post at Occo- 
quan and made ready for any emergency. When the Union 
army took the field, it was soon made clear that the peninsula 
between the York and James rivers was the chosen route. 

It was a source of much satisfaction to us that a small 
force of 12,000 of our troops under General Magruder at 
Yorktown brought to bay for a month the imposing Army 
of the Potomac. Slowly, however, our troops fell back and 
the Federals advanced, until it became a concern of the Gov- 
ernment as to where the gage of battle would be accepted. 
When General Johnston reached the vicinity of the Chicka- 
hominy, on the high ground bordering the river swamp, he 
formed his line to give battle, and sent a dispatch to President 
Davis advising him of the fact. The Cabinet was in session 
when the dispatch was received ; and the members suggested 
to the President the manifest danger of General Johnston's 
offering battle to a superior force wath his rear on such a 
stream as that of the Chickahominy, where the swamp was 
wide with no roads or bridges suf^cient to enable him to 
retreat if he should be defeated. A further question was 
raised as to whether the President should not call General 
Johnston's attention to this. Mr. Davis declined to do so, 
saying that when we entrusted a command to a general, we 
must expect him, with all the facts before him, to know what 
is best to be d^Dne ; that it would not be safe to undertake to 
control military operations by advice from the capital. This 
I know to have been his policy throughout the w^ar, adverse 
critics to the contrary notwithstanding. 



138 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

The next morning, instead of receiving the report of a 
battle, the President received a dispatch from General John- 
ston saying that he was retiring across the Chickahominy, 
and would contest the crossing of that stream with McClel- 
lan. There was in the Cabinet an expression of relief when 
his dispatch was read. The Chickahominy was crossed some 
twenty-five miles from Richmond. 

The day after this crossing was made, I rode down to our 
lines and camped that night with Hood's brigade, and the 
next day marched with it to where we w^ent into camp, a 
little below Rockets, a suburb of Richmond. About the hour 
of noon, as I was returning to my residence, in passing the 
Executive office, I saw the President coming out. He hailed 
me and requested that when I got my dinner I should come 
and go with him down to the Chickahominy to see General 
Johnston. As I rode off I said to him that he would not have 
to go to the Chickahominy to see the General. From what 
occurred afterward it was apparent that he had not caught 
my words. 

After dinner we rode out through Rockets, and on reach- 
ing the high ground, the President asked me what those tents 
were, indicating an encampment a half mile or so from us. 
I told him they were the tents of Hood's brigade. 

"No!" he exclaimed; "Hood's brigade is down on the 
Chickahominy." 

I replied that I had camped with it the night before, and 
had come there with it. Riding on a little farther I remarked, 
"If you want to see General Johnston, he is in the brick house 
off to our right." 

Again he objected, not seeming to be able to realize the 
situation : "No, General Johnston is down on the Chicka- 
hominy." 

To which I answered that I had seen him and his staff go 
to that house that day. The look of surprise which swept 
over his face showed a trace of pain. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR RICHMOND 139 

Mr. Davis and one of his staff officers, I believe it was 
Colonel Ives, turned off to the General's headquarters ; and 
I rode on to Hood's camp. The President never told me 
what occurred between him and General Johnston; but his 
staff officer did. He said the President inquired of the Gen- 
eral why he was in the suburbs of Richmond, and had not 
contested the crossing of the Chickahominy with General 
McClellan. General Johnston's answer was that the army 
was out of provisions, that the ground near the Chicka- 
hominy was low and marshy and the water bad; and that 
he had brought the army near Richmond where the ground 
was dry, the water good, and to be that much nearer needed 
supplies. The President inquired if Richmond was to be 
given up without a battle; and not getting a satisfactory 
answer as to whether it would or not, said to General John- 
ston that if he was not going to give battle, he would appoint 
some one to the command who would. This will throw light 
on what subsequently occurred between them. 

The President's anxiety was known to the Cabinet. He 
invited Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was then acting in the 
capacity of military adviser or consulting-general* to the 
President, to meet with the Cabinet, and when we were con- 
vened Mr. Davis announced his solicitude and requested 
General Lee's opinion as to the next best line of defense, if 
Richmond should be abandoned. General Lee, after discuss- 
ing the question as a military engineer, stated that the next 
best line of defense would be at Staten River. "But," he 
added, "Richmond must not be given up — it shall not be 
given up." As he spoke the tears ran down his cheeks. I 
have seen him on many occasions and at times when the 
very fate of the Confederacy hung in the balance; but I never 
saw him show equally deep emotion. 



*It ought to be noted that General Lee had just returned to Richmond 
from his unsuccessful West Virginia campaign. For his failure there, 
he had been subjected not only to criticism but to abuse, Mr. Davis's 
confidence in him had not been shaken. 



140 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

On the 31st of May, 1862, battle was joined between the 
armies of McClellan and Johnston — known as Seven Pines 
or Fair Oaks. On the morning of that day I rode with the 
President to the front, and found General Lee with General 
Magruder at the headquarters of the latter. I left them and 
rode on with General Hatton until we overtook his brigade, 
and, leaving the General, passed on to where General G. W. 
Smith was putting the Confederate brigades into battle as 
they came up. I had promised the men of Hood's brigade 
that if they got into a battle near Richmond, I would try to 
be with them. In going to the front, I met General Ran- 
dolph, the Secretary of War, who, on learning my purpose 
to join the Texas men, advised, "You had better go back 
with me; Yankee bullets have no respect for Postmaster- 
Generals." 

On reaching General Smith I inquired of him where I 
would find Hood's brigade. He said he could not tell me, 
but that if I would take the right hand road of the three that 
branched off there, and keep a lookout to the right I might 
possibly find it in half a mile or so. I rode on to the field 
at Fair Oaks House, and saw some men across the railroad 
at the far side of the field. It was cloudy, and that together 
with the smoke on the field kept me from knowing who they 
were until I got near them. When I reached them they 
raised a shout, and that seemed to have invited the opening 
of the enemy's artillery on them. The firing was quite rapid. 
About one-half of the brigade was there, but on account of 
the boggy condition of the ground, the field officers and 
the remainder of the brigade had not been able to reach that 
place, and there were no officers present above the rank of 
captain. They requested me to lead them in a charge. In 
the absence of all information and authority as to what 
should be done, I thought it best not to risk such a step. 
The men lay down, and were being furiously shelled, when 
I saw some persons ride up to the Fair Oaks House, nearly 
midway between where we were and the Federal batteries. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR RICHMOND 141 

Through the smoke I thought it to be General Johnston and 
his staff, and galloped to where they were. General Johnston 
was in the house. I did not dismount and did not see him, 
but the Hon. Muscoe Garnett, with whom I had served four 
years in Congress, and Major J. D. Banks, two members of 
his staff, were in the yard, and I somewhat emphatically 
expressed my surprise that the commander of an army in a 
great battle should put himself in a position where he could 
not live long, saying that his example would encourage no 
one, as the officers and men could not know where he was. 
This statement was taken to him, and I was advised by the 
officer who took it that his only answer was that this was no 
time to look for safe places. 

At this time General Hatton came up within a short dis- 
tance of us and I rode to where he was. He ordered his men 
to front, load, and forward by the front. As he rode off at 
the head of his brigade he turned to me and said he hoped 
we might meet again. These were probably his last words, 
as he had gone but a short distance when he was killed by a 
shot. I there witnessed the advance of his and of Petti- 
grew's brigades on the Federal line of earthworks, bristling 
with cannon. While this was their first battle they showed 
the steadiness of regulars, and marched into the jaws of 
death. 

I passed across the field into the woods beyond it, and 
there found President Davis and Generals Lee and Magruder 
under a fire of small arms. I protested against the Presi- 
dent's unnecessary exposure and said to them that I had just 
left General Johnston where he was in great danger, exposed 
as he was to the enemy's fire. A few minutes later a courier 
came from our left and announced that General Hampton 
had been wounded; and at nearly the same time another 
announced that General Johnston had been killed ; and after 
a short interval he was brought past us on a stretcher, appar- 
ently in a lifeless condition. President Davis at once gave 
General Lee verbal direction to take command of the army 



142 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and to issue the necessary orders. The archives of the War 
Department show that he was appointed to the command 
three days later, but he assumed control of the field during 
the battle, as indicated. Gen. G. W. Smith was next in rank 
to General Johnston, and the records indicate that he was in 
command of the army three days, which came from the delay 
in issuing the formal order of appointment to General Lee. 
General Smith, because of Mr. Davis's failure to put him in 
command, was aggrieved and became an active enemy of 
the President afterward. Mr. Davis had great respect for 
General Smith, he having been proposed for Secretary of 
War, but thought General Lee the proper man to take com- 
mand of the army. 

In this battle we lost in killed, wounded and missing, 
6,084 officers and men; the Federal loss was stated to be 
4,857, our greater loss resulting from our having to attack 
their earthworks. The Confederate loss of officers was so 
great, owing to their leading their men in the charges, that 
General Lee issued an order to the effect that thereafter they 
should occupy their prescribed positions in battle. But I may 
state that this order was often violated, many of our most 
gallant leaders being killed at the head of their commands. 

During the first day's fighting, as I have stated, I was on 
the battlefield and under the fire of both artillery and small 
arms. I reached the field and rode over it with the President, 
after the main part of the fighting of the second day was 
over, though we witnessed the shelling by the Federals of 
some cars used as temporary hospitals for our wounded, in 
spite of the fact that yellow flags were flying over them. 

Among the sights I had in early years wished to see was 
the field of a great battle. In riding over the ground that 
day a scene was presented, especially on and near the Wil- 
liamsburg road, such as I trust I shall never have to witness 
again. In that part of the field the Confederates had stormed 
and captured lines of very strong earthworks, and held them. 
The ground over which the armies fought was very v/et and 



THE STRUGGLE FOR RICHMOND 143 

soft, and as we rode along our horses much of the time were 
bogged up to their knees ; and it was covered with the dead 
and wounded men of both armies, wrecked and overturned 
gun carriages, exploded caissons, and abandoned ambu- 
lances. Great numbers of small arms and accouterments 
were scattered among the dead and wounded soldiers. The 
sight was so ghastly and sickening as to cause me to wish 
that there might be no more wars. 

After an indecisive battle McClellan drew the corps he 
had advanced beyond the Chickahominy back across that 
stream. Nearly a month elapsed before the opposing armies 
were again in conflict. Once more the Confederates were the 
aggressors, and June 26th began what is known as the "seven 
days' battles," which ended at Malvern Hill, where the Fed- 
erals, under the protection of their gunboats on the James 
River, were glad enough to find refuge — and for the second 
time the Army of the Potomac had failed to reach Richmond. 

In the course of the seven days' fighting, at the battle of 
Gaines' Mill, there occurred a struggle which has few paral- 
lels for heroic courage and valor in all the annals of war. 
Because of the part taken in it by Texans, I shall relate some 
of the circumstances. 

A part of the Federal forces occupied a very strong posi- 
tion on a hill on the east side of Gaines' Mill Creek, with 
three lines of infantry; one was stationed about a third of 
the distance from the foot of the hill, the second about half 
way up, and the third between that one and the top of the 
hill, which was probably 300 or 400 feet high. Their lines 
were protected by fallen trees, with a swamp and abattis one 
or two hundred yards wide in their front. The crown of 
the hill was occupied by the field batteries of the enemy. In 
order to attack this position the Confederate soldiers had to 
advance through a gradually descending open field. Two 
assaults had been repulsed, when, in the general movement 
of the forces, Hood's brigade was brought to its front. Gen- 
eral Lee inquired of him whether he thought he could take it. 
Hood's answer was in the affirmative. 



144 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

It SO happened that the First Regiment of Texas infantry, 
commanded by Col. John Marshall, was launched against the 
Federal stronghold. Colonel Marshall was soon killed; the 
lieutenant-colonel was very seriously and the major mor- 
tally wounded before the advance reached the creek, and 
many others of the regiment were killed or wounded before 
they got through the abattis. This regiment, with no officer 
above the grade of captain, drove the three lines of infantry 
from their defenses, and captured the artillery which 
crowned the hill, and which had been pouring a deadly fire 
into the charging columns. A few hundred yards farther 
on the Texans saw two field batteries across a depression of 
the field. Before they had gone far, however, they were 
assailed by a brigade of Federal cavalry under General 
McCook. This was put to flight and then the Texans again 
rushed forward and captured the batteries. 

The Fifth Texas Regiment, commanded by Col. Jerome 
B. Robertson, had also broken through the Federal lines and 
come in view of what was left of the First Regiment. Rob- 
ertson's statement made afterward to me was that when he 
saw General McCook's cavalry moving rapidly to the attack 
of the First Texas Regiment, and saw the small remainder 
of that regiment, it made his heart ache, as it seemed out of 
the question for them successfully to resist such a force. But 
he said the men quickly aligned and stolidly awaited the 
attack, and that when the brigade got within range he never 
saw saddles emptied so fast. 

The cavalry recoiled, defeated, and, as soon as this was 
accomplished, and the field batteries taken, the Texans 
started for a Federal siege battery, nearly a mile farther on. 
Gen. T. J. Chambers, who had followed them, as a looker-on, 
hastened after them and got them to stop, saying that the 
enemy was then in their rear, and that if they went forward 
they would certainly be captured. Colonel Robertson's regi- 
ment then joined the remainder of Marshall's, and on their 
return they found that the gap they had made in passing 



THE STRUGGLE FOR RICHMOND 145 

through the Federal Hue had been occupied by a New Jersey 
regiment, which on demand surrendered. The beautiful silk 
banner of this regiment was sent as a trophy to Austin, 
Texas ; and was after the war returned to New Jersey by the 
military governor, Hamilton. 

The First Texas Regiment went into the battle with more 
than eight hundred men ; but came out of it, after this bril- 
liant exploit, with a roll call of a little over two hundred. 
After that on different occasions General Lee urged me to 
aid him in getting a division of Texans for his command, 
remarking that with such a force he would engage to break 
any line of battle on earth in an open field. 



CHAPTER XII 

Cabinet and Other Questions 

At the first meeting of the Cabinet after my appointment, 
the Secretary of War, the Hon. L. P. Walker, reported that 
the Confederate States could arm and equip 10,000 men; 
and the question was, what disposition should be made of 
them?. The matter was submitted to the Cabinet by the 
President, with the request for expressions of opinion. After 
the other members had spoken I said that I was unable to 
concur with any of the views which had been presented ; that 
in my opinion 5,000 of the troops should be placed near 
Louisville and that the other 5,000 should be stationed near 
Covington, Kentucky. To this suggestion reply was made 
that we had gone to war to vindicate States' Rights, and that 
Kentucky had not given her consent for us to send troops 
into that State. To this I rejoined that if we were in peace, 
deliberating as a convention or congress, I would agree to 
that view, but as we were discussing war measures, I would 
put the soldiers where they would best answer the necessities 
of war. Furthermore, I urged that Kentucky in the recent 
election had voted by 75,000 majority against the policy of 
the Republican party, and that the adoption of my views 
would enable us to secure great bodies of soldiers for our 
cause in the States of Tennessee and Kentucky, and would 
obtain for us the cooperation of tliose commonwealths. But 
the Cabinet, with the concurrence of the President, adhered 
to the opinion that we should not send soldiers into Kentucky 
without the consent of that State. 




The First Confederate Cabinet 



"FACING PAGE 



^ 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 147 

It was not a pleasant situation to find myself at the first 
meeting of the Cabinet antagonizing the views of its mem- 
bers and of the President. But my opinion then was, and 
still is, that the course I recommended would have been the 
best for our cause ; and this view was subsequently strength- 
ened by the policy pursued by the Federal Government of 
inducing Kentucky to favor neutrality, and at the same time 
of winning over the people of Kentucky by offering commis- 
sions in the army, and by liberal expenditures in the purchase 
of army supplies. 

Another matter of interest came up shortly in the Cabi- 
net — the question as to what consideration should be given 
the partisan political divisions which had existed in the 
South. Upon canvassing the subject it was resolved that 
the contest on which we were entering concerned the rights 
and interests of all the people. Democrats and Whigs alike, 
and that former partisan lines should not be recognized in 
appointments and promotions to office; and that the only 
tests as to fitness should be : Is the person true to the Con- 
federate cause and honest and qualified for the duties in 
question? The wisdom of this policy had a striking illus- 
tration during the latter years of the war. 

After the battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, 
there was more or less despondency among public men. And 
as other misfortunes occurred this increased, and with it the 
malcontents in Congress became more outspoken in their 
opposition to the President, adding to his embarrassment. 
The Hon. W. A. Graham of North Carolina, and Hon. Gus- 
tavus A. Henry of Tennessee, both in the Confederate 
Senate, had before the war been among the most prominent 
Whigs in the United States, and consequently in antagonism 
with the Democratic views of President Davis. As the trou- 
bles of the Confederacy multiplied and men became more 
despondent, these two Senators, when others weakened his 
hands by inaction or by opposition, exhibited a Roman 
courage and devotion, and heartily sustained him in all his 
efforts to serve the interests of the South. 



148 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In 1862 there was a secret and confidential conference of 
the general officers of the army commanded by Gen. Braxton 
Bragg, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which the question 
was discussed as to the propriety of enlisting negroes in the 
military service of the Confederacy. It was brought out 
that Gen. John C. Breckinridge, General Cleburne, and Gen- 
eral Hindman favored such a policy, all the other officers 
present opposing it. General Bragg sent a full copy of the 
proceedings of that meeting to President Davis, who laid it 
before the Cabinet in like secrecy and confidence. 

I believed in the necessity of arming the negroes, and sup- 
ported that belief by referring to the charts in use by the 
Federal armies, which distinguished by dark shading the 
parts of the Confederacy where the greater numbers of 
negroes were found, and by pointing out that they were 
making their campaig"ns largely through the negro districts 
and were enlisting the negroes in their service. I took the 
position that I would prefer to have them in our service 
rather than fight them in the ranks of our enemies. But no 
other member of the Cabinet agreed with this view ; and so 
the subject rested until the latter years of the war, when it 
again became a serious question for discussion. 

In the message of President Davis to the Confederate 
Congress, dated November 7, 1864, he recommended the 
qualified use of slaves in our army. General Lee, writing on 
this subject, favored the enlistment of negroes in the military 
service, and the manumission of all such, giving as a reason 
for their value as soldiers, their capacity for physical endur- 
ance, and their accustomed obedience to orders. ( Napoleon 
Bonaparte said that these were the important qualities for 
soldiers.) General Lee invited committees of the Virginia 
legislature and of Congress to secret conferences with him 
on this subject. Both the legislature and Congress hesitated ; 
but at last, when too late. Congress agreed to have 40,000 
enlisted as teamsters. But even this measure was not carried 
into effect. 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 149 

While on this subject I may mention that one gentleman, 
from Mississippi, whose name I cannot recall, proposed, if 
the Government would receive them, to put a battalion of his 
own negroes in the field and command them himself. And 
another from North Carolina made a similar proposition. 
These offers were not accepted. 

The question of enlisting the negroes in the military 
service was a very serious one. To have made soldiers of 
them would have involved their liberation, and the effect on 
the remainder of their race of freeing them had to be consid- 
ered. The question of the sacrifice of their property value 
had also to be weighed, and whether the sacrifice was to be 
borne by their owners, or whether they should in some other 
way and to some extent be relieved of that burden. Besides, 
the fear which then existed of the effect of freeing the 
negroes was, of course, in the minds of all. The considera- 
tions which will no doubt occur to the reader will show why 
there was hesitation on this subject. While I then realized 
these difficulties, I believed that the employment of them as 
soldiers was the only thing which could save us from subju- 
gation. But there was a decided opinion among the members 
of the Congress that the people would not submit to such a 
policy. 

After the lapse of forty years the new generation may not 
understand why there should have been such serious alarm 
at the thought of freeing the negroes. This is better under- 
stood when we remember the violent and fanatical pamphlets 
and books which were issued by the more rabid Abolitionists, 
appealing to force, and urging the use of fire and sword to 
secure their freedom. If I may be pardoned for referring to 
it, such a book was written by H. R. Helper of North Caro- 
lina, which was endorsed and recommended to the public by 
sixty-two Republican members of Congress and by a great 
many of the leading public men of the North. Such incen- 
diary appeals were not without effect — witness the armed 
invasion of the State of Virginia by the notorious John 
Brown and his associates. 



150 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

When I determined to leave Washington in January, 
1 86 1, I had resolved that if war should occur, which was 
then thought proba.ble, that I would enter the military 
service, and so secured a pretty fair library of books on mili- 
tary subjects. I hesitated to accept the place as one of the 
Texas members of the Provisional Congress of the Confed- 
eracy, still having in mmd entering the Army. But events 
marched along at a rapid pace and after I had served as 
Postmaster-General about a year, I tendered my resignation 
to the President, giving as my reason for resigning that I 
was at an age which would enable me to perform military 
duty and that I desired to go into the Army. The matter was 
brought to the attention of the Cabinet, and the members of 
it joined with Mr. Davis in requesting me to remain in the 
Post Office Department, saying among other things that I 
had the Department under efficient control, and that my 
resignation might be construed as dissatisfaction with the 
Administration, which was far from my wish. And I with- 
drew my resignation. 

In my opinion the most serious matter ever determined by 
the Cabinet was the plan of the campaign of 1863 — the 
fateful year of the war between the States. As early as 
November, 1862, the campaign against Vicksburg was 
begun. The disposition of General Grant to get below 
Vicksburg was manifested as early as February, 1863. On 
the 20th of April the movement of the enemy commenced 
through the country to the west of the Mississippi River; 
and toward the end of the month they began ferrying from 
the Louisiana to the Mississippi side and the purpose could 
no longer be in doubt. 

Early in the year 1863 the question of the invasion by our 
army of the country north of the Potomac was being dis- 
cussed by the Cabinet and General Lee. One of the consid- 
erations favoring such a policy was that supplies for our 
army were much reduced — and these were abundant in the 
territory of the enemy. Another consideration was that a 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 151 

successful campaign in the territory adjacent to Washington, 
Baltimore, and Philadelphia might cause the withdrawal of 
the troops then menacing Vicksburg and Port Hudson. 

Our means of communication with western Louisiana, 
Arkansas, and Texas largely depended on our command of 
the Mississippi at those cities. It was apparent that their fall 
meant the bisecting of the Confederacy by the line of the 
Mississippi, in which event w^e should be deprived, in a large 
measure, of the men and supplies west of that river. As the 
lines came to be more and more tightly drawn, appeals from 
the civil and military authorities poured in for reinforce- 
ments for the army of General Pemberton, who commanded 
before Vicksburg. 

The President received a number of letters and telegrams 
from Governor Peters of Mississippi, and others, advising 
him to dispatch reinforcements from General Lee's army to 
the defense of Vicksburg. These he read to the Cabinet and 
requested the members to meet him on the next day to con- 
sider the whole question of the campaign of 1863. We 
assembled early — it was Saturday — and remained in session 
in the anxious discussion of that campaign until after night- 
fall. 

I shall never forget that scene. The President and mem- 
bers of the Cabinet fully realized the grave character of the 
question to be considered. General Lee did not meet with 
us on this occasion, though he often did so in his capacity as 
Military Adviser to the President, and latterly as general in 
the field. He was not a man of many words and when he 
spoke it was in the fulness of conviction. He had expressed 
his views on the subject of a campaign north of the Potomac. 
Every possible contingency was pointed out in our discus- 
sion, and' it early became apparent to me that I stood almost 
alone. I urged that we should let it be given out that we 
intended to send the Army of Virginia north of the Potomac, 
and that we should meantime strengthen the defenses of 
Richmond, collect supplies for a six months' siege, and at 



152 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the proper time dispatch 25,000 or 30,000 of General Lee's 
troops to Vicksburg. It was observed that this would 
involve the necessity of abandoning the Shenandoah Valley. 
I admitted that we might have to do so temporarily, but 
added that there would remain with General Lee some 
50,000 veteran and victorious troops for the protection of 
Richmond. I further contended that by sending a part of 
General Lee's army, and a part of the Army of Tennessee 
confronting General Buell, and by directing General John- 
ston to collect and forward all the men and supplies he could 
from the Gulf States, General Grant might be crushed. My 
plan involved waiting until he got well on the east side of the 
Mississippi and then to fall on him with such a force as to 
prevent his recrossing that stream, then to destroy his army. 
I argued, furthermore, that we could then send this vic- 
torious army north by way of Corinth, and either crush or 
drive Buell's army north of the Ohio River. I also presented 
the view that the prospects for the recognition of our inde- 
pendence by Great Britain and France would be much 
strengthened by the defeat of those two armies, and that 
Federal finances were then in a precarious condition, and 
might by this be made so much worse as to give increased 
strength to those in the Northern States who were opposed 
to the war; and further effusion of blood be avoided. 

It was urged in opposition to my view that the best way 
to protect Vicksburg was to put Washington and Baltimore 
in danger and thus cause the withdrawal of troops from 
Grant's army for their defense. To this I demurred. Gen- 
eral Grant, I said, had reached a position which would pre- 
vent dealing with him in that way, and that what he was 
doing showed that he intended Vicksburg should fall if his 
army was not destroyed. 

In the end it was determined that General Lee should cross 
the Potomac and put himself in a position to threaten Wash- 
ington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and that General John- 
ston should get together such men and supplies as he could 
in the Gulf States and go to the relief of Pemberton. 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 153 

I thought then, and think now, that i£ the plan I proposed 
had been adopted. Vicksburg and Port Hudson would not 
have fallen, and we would not have had to mourn the failure 
at Gettysburg. A short letter I wrote to the President 
requesting the reconvening of the Cabinet to consider this 
subject was taken from me, along with my other papers, 
when I was made a prisoner by the Federal soldiers, and I 
was told long afterward by Secretary Stanton that it was in 
the archives of the War Department at Washington. All 
my efforts, however, have failed to recover it. 

It may be that I, not being a military man, though I have 
been something of a reader of the history of campaigns, 
should speak with greater deference upon a subject which 
was considered by great military men like President Davis 
and General Lee; but if these lines shall ever be read by 
others, I can only say that they are written in accordance 
with the views I then entertained, and that I shall be content 
if they ever receive the verdict of careful military critics 
familiar with the times and circumstances. 

On reaching Washington, on my return from prison at 
Fort Warren, in the fall of 1865, I called on Mr. Stanton, 
Secretary of War. In our conversation he stated that he and 
some others of the Cabinet, and President Lincoln, expected 
the Confederate Government to adopt such a plan as I had 
suggested for the relief of Vicksburg and Port Hudson and 
that they had held General Grant back for some weeks. 
"And," he added, "if your Government had adopted the 
policy you recommended the war would have been very 
much prolonged." 

The Confederacy sought only the good-will and neutrality 
of nations in the contest for independence. It did not press 
for recognition as an independent State; would have been 
content if the full rights of a belligerent could have been 
secured — the right to purchase supplies and vessels in a man- 
ner authorized by international law, etc. An effort was 
made to have ships built in Great Britain, but not to be sup- 



154 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

plied with armaments in the ports of that country; and sev- 
eral, notably the Alabama, were thus obtained. This privi- 
lege, however, was finally withdrawn. While Great Britain 
recognized the belligerency of the Confederacy, that Gov- 
ernment was in almost all cases unfair to us in the exercise 
of the rights and duties of a neutral power. Russia was 
hostile; and France was uncertain. 

In an interview with the Hon. John Slidell, the represen- 
tative of the Confederate Government at Paris, the Emperor 
Napoleon asked the question of him as to why the Confed- 
eracy did not obtain ships and raise the blockade at the mouth 
of the Mississippi, and reoccupy New Orleans. Mr. Slidell 
answered that efforts had been made to secure the building 
of ships in England, and that this had been prohibited by that 
Government. The Emperor replied, "Why not build them 
in France?" Mr. Slidell observed that the Confederacy 
would be only too glad to do so. Thereupon, the Minister 
of Marine was sent for, and an understanding was reached 
that two ships might be built in French yards, but 
they were not to receive their armaments in French waters. 

A contract for this purpose was made, and two ships were 
in course of construction, one of them being nearly ready to 
receive her armament, when a clerk in the office of the Min- 
ister of Marine stole the contract for their construction, and 
furnished it to Mr. Dayton, the United States ]\Iinister to 
France. Dayton took the contract to the Emperor, and 
inquired whether it was genuine. The Emperor admitted 
that it was, and, instead of standing by this contract, he 
repudiated it, and sent for the contractor, who did not know 
of the Emperor's connection with the matter, and threatened 
to have him shot if he did not sell the vessels to some other 
Government. When this was occurring, the Confederate 
authorities, believing the contract would be carried out, were 
already anticipating the appearance of these vessels at the 
mouth of the Mississippi. The surprise and disappointment 
in Richmond was very great, and President Davis wrote an 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 155 

autograph letter to the Emperor, courteously diplomatic, but 
registering a protest against his not abiding by a fair con- 
tract, which had been made at his own suggestion. I have 
supposed that when the battle of Sedan changed the fortunes 
of the Emperor, he might have called to mind his want of 
good faith with the Confederacy. 

During the war the operations of the Army were on so 
extensive a scale, and affected so closely the people, they quite 
obscured to the general public the character of the service 
rendered by the Navy. It will doubtless prove a surprise to 
many to learn that from first to last there was in the service 
of the Confederate Navy twenty-five ships, twenty-seven 
schooners, and forty-one barks. The Confederate cruisers 
captured or destroyed vessels belonging to the United States 
to the number of forty-nine ships, eighteen brigs, thirty-five 
barks, thirty-four schooners, one steamer, one pilot boat — 
133 in all. 

Besides the Confederate vessels mentioned, Secretary Mal- 
lory had three great iron-clad vessels constructed, the 
Virginia at Norfolk ; the Manassas and the Louisiana at New 
Orleans. The genius of Secretary Mallory and of the naval 
officers who were in the service of his Department, through 
the iron-clad ram Virginia or Merrinmc, revolutionized the 
system of naval architecture of the world. This vessel was 
made on the hull of the frigate Merrimac, which had been 
sunk by the Union soldiers on their withdrawal from Nor- 
folk. Secretary Mallory early took up the matter of an 
iron-clad, and in a communication to the naval committee, 
on the 8th of May, 1861, said : 

I regard the possession of an iron armored ship as a matter 
of the first necessity. Such a vessel at this time could traverse 
the entire coast of the United States, prevent all blockades and 
encounter, with fair prospects of success, their entire navy. 

Up to this time there were only wooden ships in the navies 
of the world, and the first exploit of the Virginia proved the 



• ^ 



156 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

soundness of his views. Only iron-clads could withstand 
her attacks ; and the appearance of the Monitor alone saved 
the blockading squadron in Hampton Roads. 

When the Virginia had been made ready for service, and 
moved out from Norfolk toward the bay, the United States 
vessels, the Minnesota with forty guns, the Roanoke with 
forty guns, the St. Lawrence with fifty guns, together with 
the gunboats Dragon, Mystic, and Whitehall lay at Fortress 
Monroe. The Virginia was accompanied by the steam tugs 
Beaufort and Raleigh. At Newport News, riding at anchor, 
were the United States vessels Cumberland with thirty guns, 
and the Congress with fifty guns. When the Virginia went 
into action she was reinforced by the Patrick Henry with 
twelve guns, the Jamestozvn with two guns, and the gunboat 
Teaser with one gun — a total of twenty-seven guns, against 
an armament of three hundred guns, of which one hundred 
could be brought into action at any one moment. At the 
outset the Virginia brought her ram into action, and struck 
the Cumberland, crushing through her sides and sinking her, 
carrying down all her officers and crew that were not killed. 
She also destroyed the Congress with her fifty guns, and 
participated in a good deal of fighting with other vessels; 
thus by the new naval engine of war winning a most remark- 
able victory. 

The inquiry has been made why the Virginia did not go 
to Washington, Baltimore, or Philadelphia, as the Federals 
feared. The answer is that she was not seaworthy; and to 
have lightened her to enable her to make such a cruise, the 
hull would be so exposed as to endanger her safety. 

The Confederate Government experienced much difficulty 
and delay in sending and receiving foreign mail on account 
of the blockade of her ports. Such mail matter was carried 
by the blockade-runners, and by other means through Cuba, 
Bermuda, Nassau, and sometimes through Canada and 
Mexico, arriving at its destination in this round-about way, 
if at all. After reaching port in some one of the above named 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 157 

places in going out, the mails were generally transferred to 
vessels of neutral nations, mostly English and French ; and 
on coming in, they were generally brought to some of those 
places by foreign vessels, and then transferred to blockade- 
runners. 

The difficulties attending the operations of the postal 
service multiplied as hostile armies pierced farther and far- 
ther our lines. After the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, 
communication between Richmond, the seat of government, 
and the country west of the Mississippi River became 
extremely uncertain. Congress was obliged, therefore, to 
provide a branch of the postal service and a branch of the 
Treasury Department for the region west of that river. Dr. 
James H. Starr, on my recommendation, was appointed chief 
of the postal division. He established his office at Marshall, 
Texas; and the Department at Richmond furnished him 
with the laws and circulars of instructions, and complete 
information as to all matters for his government, including 
all the necessary bound books, office forms, and clerical force 
needed for the carrying on of the postal service. Dr. Starr 
was one of the best business men I had known; he had been 
for three years Secretary of the Treasury for the Republic 
of Texas, and performed his duties in this new field to the 
entire satisfaction of the Department. 

Chapters could be written on the expedients to which we 
were driven to get the mails back and forth across the Father 
of Waters, which was now patrolled throughout its length 
by the armed vessels of the enemy. The river was crossed 
in rowboats, usually under cover of night and at many points, 
and in this manner the letters of wives to husbands and of 
mothers to sons who were serving in the army, went forward 
to their destination; and in return came papers and letters 
from the front to the anxious ones who bore the brunt of 
sufferings at home, who lived lives of sacrifice that the cause 
for which they struggled might be furthered. 



158 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

At the time of the organization of the Post Office Depart- 
ment, and for some months after, we had no postage stamps, 
and postage was required to be paid in coin. The coin so 
collected was deposited in the Confederate Treasury. In 
1863, if I am correct as to the date, I had to send to Europe 
for stationery, for postage stamps and dies, a press, a per- 
forating machine, and various things not obtainable in the 
Confederacy. The Department still had to its credit in the 
Treasury about $80,000 in coin, and I drew through the 
chief of the finance bureau on the Treasury for $50,000 to 
meet this expenditure, demanding coin because of the exist- 
ing depreciation in the value of our paper money. After 
some delay I received a long opinion in writing from Lewis 
Cruger, Comptroller in the Treasury Department, advising 
me that the Post Office Department stood like any other 
creditor, and must accept currency, as the Treasury needed 
the coin. Under the law, when a statement of fact made the 
opinion of the Comptroller proper, he was authorized to give 
an opinion, but no case had been made which under the law 
required his opinion, and I so wrote him; and renewed my 
demand for the coin, with which Mr. Memminger refused to 
comply. At a Cabinet meeting I called the attention of the 
President to our disagreement, and requested him to settle it. 
He asked that the correspondence be submitted to him. I 
submitted copies of the correspondence, and I closed my 
letter to Mr. Davis with a few brief paragraphs, stating what 
I understood to be the law of the case ; which, in substance, 
was that the Treasury must repay to the Post Office Depart- 
ment the same kind of money in which its deposits were 
made; and that if the Treasurer refused to do so, it was the 
duty of the Postmaster-General to report him to the Presi- 
dent for removal from office. 

Attorney-General Watts, to whom Mr. Davis referred the 
papers, in returning them to the President, said in his report 
that the brief paragraphs at the end of the letter of the Post- 
master-General so aptly stated the law that he copied them 
in his opinion. 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 159 

The Secretary of the Treasury again wrote to the Post- 
master-General, proposing to renew the correspondence. I 
did not answer him, but wrote to the Treasurer, Edward C. 
Elmore, calling his attention to the provisions of the Revised 
Statutes, which on this subject was made our law, and to the 
opinion of Attorney-General Watts, saying to him that I 
hoped his action would render it unnecessary for me to report 
him to the President for removal from office. Mr. Elmore 
said he knew then what to do and paid over the $50,000 
in coin. 

The action of the military for a time caused some embar- 
rassment to the postal service, by the conscription of mail 
carriers for service in the Army, in which they had the con- 
currence of Mr. Seddon, the Secretary of War. After some 
correspondence between the two Departments this practice 
was abandoned. My contention was that the mail service 
was an important adjunct to every arm of the Government, 
and that to impair its usefulness meant material injury to the 
whole machinery of the State. 

The Post Office Department was charged with the man- 
agement and control of the telegraph system of the Confed- 
eracy ; and I selected for the head of that branch of the service 
Dr. William H. Morris, who had been the general superin- 
tendent of the lines of telegraph in that part of the country 
which we controlled. He showed decided ability and 
efficiency in the management of that service, which was 
attended with serious difficulties on account of the expansion 
and contraction of our territory, caused by the movements 
of the armies of the two countries. My official reports show 
the extent and character of this work. 

Having seen that the Emperor Napoleon had used a field 
telegraph at the battle of Solferino, by my direction Dr. 
Morris had the necessary battery and wire mounted on 
wheels for use in the field. The radius of its operations was 
about five miles. I forwarded it to General Lee ; but he 



160 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

found that on account of the broken character of the country 
and the extent of the forests he could not successfully utilize 
the apparatus. 

There were a good many changes in the Cabinet of Presi- 
dent Davis during the four years of the Confederacy. These 
came about for various reasons. Mr. Toombs, desiring to 
enter the Army, resigned the position of Secretary of State, 
and was appointed a brigadier-general by Mr. Davis. Gen- 
eral Walker was an able lawyer, and earnestly devoted to the 
Confederate cause, but he undertook to do too much of the 
work of his Department, his health suffered, and he resigned. 
Mr. Benjamin was then transferred from the office of 
Attorney-General to that of Secretary of War, and the Hon. 
R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia was made Secretary of State. 
While Mr. Benjamin was a man of great ability, from some 
cause his appointment as Secretary of War proved unaccept- 
able to the officers of the Army, and Mr, Hunter, having 
resigned his portfolio to accept a seat in the Confederate 
Senate, was succeeded in the State Department by Mr. Ben- 
jamin. General Randolph of Virginia was appointed Secre- 
tary of War. General Randolph was a capable man and an 
efficient Secretary of War, but, as I understood at the time, 
issued certain orders as to the disposition of the troops west 
of the Mississippi without consulting the President and not 
in conformity with his desire ; and this led to his resignation. 
In November, 1862, Randolph resigned, and the vacancy 
was filled by the appointment of James A. Seddon of Vir- 
ginia. In February, 1865, Seddon resigned, and Gen. John 
C. Breckinridge was appointed in his place. In the fall of 
1864 Mr. Memminger resigned the office of Secretary of the 
Treasury, and the Hon. George A. Trenholm of South 
Carolina was appointed to that position. Mr. ]\Iemminger 
was a most excellent man, and had been the successful presi- 
dent of a bank, but there grew to be a feeling, probably with- 
out just cause, that the condition of the Confederate finances 
required a man of larger and broader views. The fact is, 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 161 

no doubt, that no genius would have been able to give satis- 
faction as Secretary of the Treasury as we were then situated. 

Matters connected with the appointment of Mr. Seddon, 
Secretary of War, caused Senator Wigfall of Texas, who 
had been an ardent supporter of the Administration, to 
become a violent opponent of the President, and to join with 
Governor Foote of Tennessee, and other malcontents, in 
giving him what trouble they could. These two and one or 
two Representatives from North Carolina and Governor 
Brown of Georgia, availing themselves of the popularity of 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who had become unfriendly to the 
President, and also using the great influence of Vice-Presi- 
dent Stephens, — who, after the fall of Vicksburg and the 
withdrawal of our army from Gettysburg, gave up hope of 
Confederate success, — greatly increased the embarrassment 
of the President in his struggle for the success of the Con- 
federate cause. Governor Brown gave him more trouble 
than the Governor of any other State. 

When General Randolph resigned the position of Secre- 
tary of War, the President, in speaking to the members of the 
Cabinet about the appointment of a successor, said that he 
was considering Mr. Seddon, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and 
Gen. G. W. Smith in connection with that appointment, and 
preferred them in that order ; but said to the Cabinet that he 
did not wish any statement made about it, as, if Mr. Seddon 
should decline the appointment, the others might refuse to 
accept it because it had not been offered them first. He made 
the tender of the appointment to Mr. Seddon. The evening 
after this, Wigfall called on him and discussed the matter of 
this appointment, and expressed his preference for the same 
men in the same order, but Mr. Davis did not tell him that he 
had already tendered the portfolio to Seddon. 

The next day the President sent for me, and inquired of 
me what was the matter with Wigfall. I answered that I did 
not know of anything being wrong with him. He said that 
Wigfall was bitterly denouncing him in the Senate. When 



162 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

I inquired if he did not know what it was about, he said that 
possibly he did; that the evening before, Senator Wigfall 
had talked with him about the appointment of a Secretary of 
War, but that he had not told him of his having offered the 
appointment to Seddon, and that the newspapers of that 
morning announced that Seddon had accepted. He had not 
told Wigfall about the matter because he did not then know 
whether Mr. Seddon would accept; and as he had charged 
the members of the Cabinet not to speak of it, he did not feel 
at liberty to speak of it himself. 

He asked me to go to the Senate to see Senator Wigfall 
and make this explanation to him, and to say to him that his 
not telling him what he had done was not because of any 
withdrawal of confidence in him, that it was no time for 
friends to quarrel, and that he certainly meant no disrespect. 
I went to the Senate, saw Senator Wigfall, and made the 
explanation to him. He expressed himself as gratified with 
it, and said he would call at my house that night. He never 
came, however, and the next day was as bitter in his denunci- 
ation of the President as before ; and continued his opposi- 
tion until the fall of the Confederacy. 

The Cabinet of Mr. Davis was so much of one view as to 
the necessities of our situation, that, while there were occa- 
sional differences of opinion among them, as was to be 
expected of thinking men, there was no passion nor strife. 

It happened that I disagreed with the views of the Presi- 
dent oftener than any other member of the Cabinet, and on 
one occasion I mentioned this to him, expressing my willing- 
ness to surrender my post if I were causing any embarrass- 
ment. He answered me that he had been a member of a 
Cabinet himself; adding that if the Cabinet should accept 
without question the opinions of the President, he did not 
well see what their use could be as advisers of the President, 
and that he was far from being displeased with my course 
in this respect. He observed that the free interchange of 
opinions w^as the way of arriving at correct conclusions. 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 163 

The President and Cabinet were so constantly and earn- 
estly engaged in the performance of their duties that but 
little time or attention was given to social amenities. I will 
mention an incident which occurred when the President had 
invited the Secretary of the Treasury, Senator Clay of Ala- 
bama, and myself to take breakfast with him. We were still 
at the table when a lady sent in her card. Mr. Davis, sup- 
posing it to be intended for Mrs. Davis, sent back word that 
Mrs. Davis was not in. The lady returned word that she 
had not called to see Mrs. Davis ; that she wished to see the 
President. 

She was invited in and proved to be quite an elderly lady, 
though sturdy and vigorous. She related that her home and 
property were in the Federal lines and that she had come to 
seek employment as clerk. She said that her children were 
able to take care of her, but that while she knew they would 
do so cheerfully, she did not want to feel that she was a 
dependant. She showed the President a gold-headed cane 
and a large oblong ring on her finger, which she said were 
in her possession as the eldest surviving descendant of the 
Hon. George Mason of Revolutionary times, Mr. Davis 
inquired if I could give her employment in the Post Office 
Department; but I had to tell him there was no vacancy. 
He made the same inquiry of Secretary Memminger, who 
requested het to write out her application in her own hand- 
writing, and when he got to the Treasury Department he 
would see what could be done for her. She sent in her appli- 
cation in a bold, free hand, and received the appointment. 

I will mention another incident in which I was relieved 
from a dilemma. I had invited the members of the Cabinet 
to dine with me. Among the dishes on the table was one of 
fried ham and eggs. Knowing that Mr. Benjamin, the Sec- 
retary of State, was a Jew, I was perplexed to know whether 
I should offer them to him. But to my relief he told me that 
the night before a burglar had broken into his smoke-house 
and stolen all of his fine hams. 



164 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In this connection I will call attention to some facts which 
illustrate the humane character of President Davis. My 
imderstanding is that, while the proceedings of many courts 
martial in which men were sentenced to be shot for desertion 
and other military offenses came to him for consideration, he 
never approved a single death sentence. It was the talk 
among the members of the Cabinet, that when the record of 
any such case came to him, he would examine it as a common 
law lawyer would examine a bill of indictment he wished to 
quash, and he never failed to find some reason for setting 
aside the death penalty. To guard against the effect of this, 
during the latter years of the war. General Lee found it neces- 
sary to have some of the deserters shot before the record was 
sent to the President, as he feared without doing this his 
army would become too much depleted by desertion. 

Toward the close of the war the necessities of the service 
demanded every available man, and it was difficult for a sol- 
dier to get a leave of absence for any cause. There was a 
North Carolina soldier whose family, consisting of a wife 
and three or four children, had been driven from their home 
by the enemy. Word came to him that they were all sick and 
destitute, and that one of the children had died. He applied 
for a leave of absence to go to their relief, but it was refused. 
Not to be deterred, however, he went to his family and did 
what he could for them, and had started back to the army 
when he was arrested as a deserter. He was tried and con- 
demned to be shot. When Mr. Davis examined the record 
he set aside the findings of the court, and ordered the prisoner 
to be restored to the ranks, saying that if he had been that 
man, under the circumstances, he would have acted in a sim- 
ilar way. 

A youth of Richmond, who had been a naval cadet, 
deserted and enlisted in the infantry service. He was tried 
for desertion, but because he had enlisted in another branch 
of the service was not punished. Afterward he deserted 
from the infantry and joined a cavalry command; he was 



CABINET AND OTHER QUESTIONS 165 

again tried for desertion, and being regarded as an incurable, 
was convicted. The President ordered him restored to the 
ranks, saying that the poorest use which could be made of a 
soldier was to shoot him. 

Riding out along the line below Richmond with the Presi- 
dent on one occasion, we passed a rather small boy in a sol- 
dier's uniform. 

"My boy, are you a soldier?" the President asked. 

"I am, sir," came quickly. 

"How old are you ?" 

"Fourteen," the youth replied. 

Mr. Davis then inquired to what command he belonged, 
and upon being informed, requested the boy to ask his captain 
to come, which was done. The President remarked to the 
captain, "I think you should send that boy home; we ought 
not to destroy the seed corn." 



CHAPTER XIII 
Hampton Roads Conference 

Vice-President Stephens, as shown in his History of the 
War Betzvcen the States, and in utterances after the fall of 
Vicksburg and the drawn battle at Gettysburg, and even 
before that, seemed to think something could be done to 
arrest the carnage of war by negotiations; and offered his 
service for that purpose in June, 1863. He evidently believed 
there was some possibility of favorable results from an effort 
at that time. After this matter had been discussed between 
them, the President gave him authority to go to Washington 
and see whether anything could be done. The authority he 
had from the President was to endeavor to secure a renewal 
of the cartel for the exchange of prisoners ; but the discus- 
sion, as shown in Mr. Stephens's book, indicated that he 
hoped to offer suggestions looking to a cessation of hostili- 
ties. While it is not stated by him or by the President in 
their printed accounts about the matter, I understood at the 
time that the Vice-President hoped for some good effect on 
account of the fact that he and President Lincoln had been 
associated as Whig members of Congress, and as friends 
before the war, and that he might, because of that, be in 
a better position to invite the attention of Mr. Lincoln to 
pacific measures. He went to the Federal lines, but was 
refused permission to proceed to Washington. 

In his history (Vol. II., p. 561) he uses this language, 
referring to what he hoped to accomplish : 

But if Mr. Lincoln could be prevailed on to agree to such a 
conference, then the object proposed, besides effecting, if pos- 
sible, the general amelioration of prisoners, and the mitigation 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 167 

of the horrors of war as conducted by the Federals, was to 
use the occasion for effecting also, if possible, other material 
results which might open the way for future negotiations that 
might eventually lead on to an amicable adjustment. * * * 
In this view Mr. Davis did not concur. He did not believe that 
the road to peace lay in that way. He did not think that any- 
thing towards its ultimate obtainment could be effected on this 
line of external policy indicated by me. 

But his book shows that after the siege of Vicksburg and 
the battle of Gettysburg, he himself had lost confidence in the 
scheme. However, it was finally agreed between them that 
he should undertake the trip to Washington; but this pro- 
gramme was superseded by the Hampton Roads Conference, 
growing out of the Hon. Francis P. Blair's intercession. 

On the 1 2th of January, 1865, the venerable Francis P. 
Blair, by permission of the Federal and Confederate authori- 
ties, visited President Davis at Richmond, Virginia, in the 
interest of peace between the United States and the Confed- 
erate States. He disavowed any authority from the Govern- 
ment of the United States to act for it. His idea seems to 
have been to secure a conference between the military 
authorities of the two governments ; and to arrange a plan, 
without any formal negotiations, by which the armies of the 
two countries could be united and sent to Mexico to enforce 
the Monroe Doctrine against the Government of the 
Emperor Maximilian. After this conference, Mr. Davis 
gave Mr. Blair a letter stating that he had no desire to throw 
obstacles in the way of negotiations for the restoration of 
peace between the two countries, and that he was ready to 
send commissioners for that purpose whenever he had reason 
to suppose they would be received. Mr. Blair having 
returned to Washington, on the 13th of January President 
Lincoln addressed a note to him in which he referred to the 
letter of President Davis, and expressed his willingness to 
receive any agent whom Mr. Davis might send him, with a 
view of securing peace to our common country. 



168 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Upon learning of this disposition, Mr. Davis determined 
to send as Commissioners, for an informal conference, Vice- 
President Stephens, the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, president of 
the Confederate Senate and former United States Senator; 
and the Hon. John A. Campbell, formerl)- a justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. The following- is the 
commission under which they were to act : • 

Richmond, January 23, 1865. 
In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, you are 
requested to proceed to Washington City for an informal con- 
ference upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for 
the purpose of securing peace to the two countries. 

Mr. Lincoln changed his purpose, and, instead of receiving 
them at Washington, met them at Hampton Roads. The 
Confederate Commissioners were met there also by Secretary 
of State W. H. Seward on the part of the United States. 

During recent years there has been an extensive discussion 
through the public prints of the questions which rose at the 
Hampton Roads Conference. It has been asserted over and 
over that President Lincoln offered to pay $400,000,000 for 
the slaves of the South to secure an end of the war ; and that 
he held up a piece of paper to Mr. Stephens, saying: "Let 
me write the word Union on it, and you may add any other 
conditions you please, if it will give us peace." I am probably 
not using the exact words which were employed, but I am 
expressing the idea given to the public, in the discussion. It 
has frequently been alleged that Mr. Stephens said these 
offers were made. This has been repeated by citizens of 
acknowledged ability and high character, and it has been said 
that these offers could not be acceded to because the instruc- 
tions given to the Commission by President Davis prevented 
it. The purpose of urging these untrue statements seems to 
have been to induce the public to believe that Mr. Davis could 
have obtained peace on almost any terms desired and $400,- 
000.000 for the Southern slaves if he would have consented 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 169 

to a restoration of the Southern States to the Union; and 
that, because of this, he was responsible for the losses of life 
and property caused by the continuance of the war. 

I shall submit evidence which will prove that no such prop- 
ositions were ever made. This course is rendered necessary 
and just, both for the truth of history, and to vindicate the 
action of President Davis and his Cabinet. For, undoubtedly, 
one of the purposes of insisting that such offers were made 
is to mislead the public as to the truth. 

The following is the report of the Confederate Commis- 
sioners to President Davis as to what occurred at the 
Conference held on the 5th of February : 

To THE President of the Confederate States : 

Under your letter of appointment of the 28th ult., we pro- 
ceeded to seek an "informal conference" with Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, upon the subject mentioned in 
the letter. The conference was granted and took place on the 
30th ult., on board a steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, 
where we met President Lincoln and the Honorable Mr. Seward, 
Secretary of State of the United States. It continued for sev- 
eral hours, and was both full and explicit. We learned from 
them that the message of President Lincoln to the Congress 
of the United States, in December last, explains clearly and 
distinctly his sentiments as to the terms, conditions, and methods 
of proceeding by which peace can be secured to the people, and 
we are not informed that they would be modified or altered to 
obtain that end. We understood from him that no terms or 
proposals of any treaty or agreement looking to an ultimate 
settlement would be entertained or made by him with the author- 
ities of the Confederate States, because that would be a recogni- 
tion of their existence as a separate power, which under no 
circumstances would be done; and for a like reason that no 
such terms would be entertained by him for the States sepa- 
rately; that no extended truce or armistice (as at present 
advised) would be granted or allowed without a satisfactory 
assurance in advance of the complete restoration of the author- 
ity of the Constitution and laws of the United States over all 
places within the States of the Confederacy; that whatever 
consequences may follow from the reestablishment of that 



170 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

authority must be accepted; but that individuals subject to 
pains and penalties under the laws of the United States might 
rely upon a very liberal use of the power confided to him to 
remit those pains and penalties if peace be restored. 

During the conference, the proposed amendment to the Con- 
stitution of the United States adopted by Congress on the 31st 
ultimo was brought to our notice. 

This amendment provides that neither slavery nor involun- 
tary servitude except for crime, should exist within the United 
States, or any place within her jurisdiction, and that Congress 
would have power to enforce this amendment by appropriate 
legislation. 

Very respectfully, etc., 

Alexander H. Stephens, 
R. M. T. Hunter, 
John A. Campbell. 

Complaint has been made that Mr. Davis, by the wording 
of his instructions to the Commission, prevented them from 
making peace on any other terms than upon the condition of 
the independence of the Confederate Government; and that 
but for this condition, peace might have been secured at the 
Hampton Roads Conference. The official papers of that 
conference show that no terms could have been obtained 
or considered other than the unconditional surrender of 
the Confederate authorities. Mr. Davis knew the Vice- 
President's strong inclination to make peace on such terms 
as could be had. This is evidenced by Mr. Stephens's His- 
tory of the War Betzveen the States, and by his many state- 
ments to others ; and it is fair to presume that the limitation 
put upon the powder of these Commissioners was for the 
purpose of making it certain that they should agree to 
nothing less than either the recognition of the independence 
of the Confederacy, or at least the securing of protection 
against the unlawful domination of its enemies. There was 
a wide divergence of views between the President and Vice- 
President on this subject. Mr. Stephens never seemed to 
realize that there was no time, while we had fighting armies 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 171 

in the field, that the people and the Army would have per- 
mitted an unconditional surrender if the President had been 
so inclined ; nor would Mr. Davis at any time have consented 
to surrender while we had armies in the field able and willing 
to prolong- the contest, rather than submit to Federal wrongs. 
It is seen that the Confederate Commissioners say that no 
terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement would be 
entertained by President Lincoln with the authorities of the 
Confederate States, or with any of the States separately, 
and that no truce or armistice would be allowed without 
satisfactory evidence, in advance, of the complete restoration 
of the authority of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States over all places within the States of the Confederacy. 
This report was signed by Mr. Stephens, Mr. Hunter, and 
Judge Campbell. It shows conclusively that unconditional 
surrender, in advance of any negotiations, was the only con- 
dition whereby the war could be ended. And Judge Camp- 
bell, in his memoranda relating to this Conference, says that : 

In conclusion, Mr. Hunter summed up what seemed to be 
the result of the interview : that there could be no arrange- 
ments by treaty between the Confederate States and the United 
States, or any agreement between them ; there was nothing left 
for them but unconditional submission. 

On the 6th of February, 1865, President Davis sent the 
report of the Commissioners to the Confederate Congress, 
with a message in which he used this language : 

I herewith transmit for the information of Congress the 
report of the eminent citizens above named, showing that the 
enemy refused to enter into negotiations with the Confederate 
States, or any of them separately, or to give our people any 
other terms or guaranties than those which the conquerors 
may grant, or to permit us to have peace on any other basis 
than our unconditional submission to their rule, coupled with 
the acceptance of their recent legislation on the subject of the 
relations between the black and white population of each State. 



172 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In his History of the War Between the States (Vol. II., 
pp. 599-626) Vice-President Stephens gives a carefully com- 
piled account of what was done at the conference; and in 
this he shows plainly and fully the distinct refusal of Presi- 
dent Lincoln to recognize, or in any form to make or agree 
to any terms for peace with the Government of the Confed- 
erate States, or with any of the States separately, except upon 
the condition that they should, before any other measure 
should be considered, recognize and accept the Constitution 
and laws of the United States, and trust to Congress as to 
what disposition was to be made of the Confederacy, their 
people, and property. There is no word in his long account 
of any proposition as to the payment of $400,000,000 for the 
slaves, or of President Lincoln's writing the word Union on 
a sheet of paper and allowing Mr, Stephens or any one else 
to determine the terms and conditions upon which the war 
should be ended. 

The joint resolutions, expressing the sense of the Confed- 
erate Congress on the subject of the Peace Commission, are 
as follows : 

Whereas, the Congress of the Confederate States have ever 
been desirous of an honorable and a permanent settlement, by 
negotiation, of all matters of difference between the people 
of the Confederate States of America and the Government of 
the United States ; and to this end provided, immediately on 
its assembling at Montgomery in February, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-one, for the sending of three commissioners to Wash- 
ington, to negotiate friendly relations on all questions of dis- 
agreement between the two Governments, on principles of right, 
justice, equity and good faith; and, whereas, these having 
been refused a reception. Congress again, on the fourteenth 
of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, adopted and pub- 
lished a Manifesto to the civilized world, declaring its continued 
desire to settle, without further shedding of blood, upon hon- 
orable terms, all questions at issue between the people of the 
Confederate States and those of the United States, to which 
the only response received from the Congress of the United 
States has been, the voting down, by large majorities, all reso- 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 173 

lutions proposing an amicable settlement of existing difficul- 
ties; and, whereas, the President has communicated to this 
Congress that, in the same spirit of conciliation and peace, he 
recently sent Vice-President Stephens, Senator Hunter, and 
Judge Campbell to hold conference with such persons as the 
Government of the United States might designate to meet them ; 
and, whereas, those eminent citizens, after a full conference 
with President Lincoln and Secretary Seward, have reported 
that they were informed explicitly that the authorities of the 
United States would hold no negotiations with the Confederate 
States, or any of them separately ; that no terms, except such 
as the conqueror grants to the subjugated, would be extended 
to the people of these States ; and that the subversion of our 
institutions, and a complete submission to their rule, was the 
only condition of peace : Therefore, 

Section First. Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate 
States of America, that while Congress regrets that no alterna- 
tive is left to the people of the Confederate States but a con- 
tinuance of the war or submission to terms of peace alike ruin- 
ous and dishonorable, it accepts in their behalf the issue ten- 
dered them by the authorities of the United States Government, 
and solemnly declares that it is their unalterable determination 
to prosecute the war with the United States until that power 
shall desist from its efforts to subjugate them, and the inde- 
pendence of the Confederate States shall have been established. 

Section Second. Resolved, that the Congress has received 
with pride the numerous noble and patriotic resolutions passed 
by the Army, and in the gallant and unconquered spirit which 
they breathe, coming from those who have for years endured 
dangers and privations, it sees unmistakable evidence that the 
enthusiasm with which they first dedicated their lives to the 
defense of their country is not yet extinct, but has been con- 
firmed by hardships and suffering into a principle of resistance 
to Northern rule, that will hold in contempt all disgraceful 
terms of submission ; and for these expressions in camp, as 
well as for their noble acts in the field, our soldiers deserve, 
and will receive the thanks of the Country. 

Section Third. Resolved, that the Congress invite the people 
of these States to assemble in public meetings, and renew their 
vows of devotion to the cause of independence ; to declare their 
determination to maintain their liberties ; to pledge themselves 
to do all in their power to fill the ranks of the Army ; and to 
provide for the support of the families of our soldiers, and 



174 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

to cheer and comfort, by every means, the gallant men, who, 
for years, through trials and dangers, have vindicated our 
rights on the battlefield. 

Section Fourth. Resolved, that, invoking the blessing of God, 
and confiding in the justice of our cause, in the valor and endur- 
ance of our soldiers, and in the deep and ardent devotion of our 
people to the great principles of civil and political liberty for 
which we are contending. Congress pledges itself to the pas- 
sage of the most energetic measures to secure our ultimate 
success. 

T. S. BococK, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
R. M. T. Hunter, 
President pro tempore of the Senate. 
Approved 14th March, '65. 
Jefferson Davis. 

So it is seen that we have the report of the Confederate 
Commissioners to the President, the message of the President 
to Congress, the joint resolutions of the two Houses of the 
Confederate Congress, and the evidence of Mr. Stephens's 
history of what occurred at that Conference to prove that no 
such offers were made by Mr. Lincoln. 

While it may seem unnecessary, I will go further and add 
to these testimonials those of President Lincoln and Secre- 
tary Seward. 

Mr. Lincoln at first determined to send Secretary of State 
Seward to meet the Confederate Commissioners, and on the 
31st of January, 1865, furnished him with instructions for 
his Government, which contained these provisions : 

You will make known to them that three things are indis- 
pensable, to wit: I, the restoration of the national authority 
throughout all the States ; 2, no receding by the Executive of 
the United States, on the slavery question, from the position 
assumed thereon in the late message to Congress, and in pre- 
ceding documents ; 3, no cessation of hostilities short of an 
end of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the 
Government. 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 175 

In Mr. Lincoln's annual message to Congress dated 
December 5th, 1864, he says: 

At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of 
the Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United 
States passed the Senate, but failed of the requisite two-thirds 
vote of the House of Representatives. Although the present 
is the same Congress, and nearly the same members, and with- 
out questioning the wisdom and patriotism of those who stood 
in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and 
passage of the measure at the present session. 

And the same message contained the following : 

In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the 
national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only 
indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the 
Government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. 
I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that while I remain 
in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify 
the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery 
any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or 
by any of the acts of Congress. If the people should, by 
whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-en- 
slave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument 
to perform it. 

The proclamation here referred to by President Lincoln 
was that of January i, 1863, for which that of September 
2.2. 1862, had prepared the way. In that of the later date he 
declared : 

That on the ist day of January, 1863, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people 
whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free. 

In the face of his annual message of December 5, 1864, 
and of these two proclamations, how could President Lincoln 
have proposed to pay $400,000,000 for the slaves he had 



176 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

already set free, and did not intend to return to a condition 
of slavery? And how could he have said that if he were 
allowed to write the word Union on a piece of blank paper 
the Confederate Commissioners might name any terms they 
pleased to end the war ? 

On the 7th of February, 1865, Mr. Seward addressed a 
communication to the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, the 
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Great 
Britain, giving, for his information, an account of what 
occurred at the Hampton Roads Conference. This letter, 
it will be observed, w^as written four days after that Confer- 
ence. In it, among other things, he said that President 
Lincoln announced to the Confederate Commissioners : 

That we can agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities, 
except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent forces, 
and the restoration of the national authority throughout all 
the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to 
the proposition which he thus announced, the anti-slavery pol- 
icy of the United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and 
the President announced that he must not be expected to depart 
from the positions he had assumed in his Proclamation of 
Emancipation, and other documents, as these positions were 
reiterated in his last annual message. It was further declared 
by the President that the complete restoration of national 
authority everywhere was an indispensable condition to any 
assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be pro- 
posed. The President assured the other party that while he 
must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, as far 
as power was lodged with the Executive, to exercise it liber- 
ally. His power, however, is limited by the Constitution ; and 
when peace should be made. Congress must necessarily act in 
regard to appropriations of money and the admission of rep- 
resentatives from the insurrectionary States. The Richmond 
party was then informed that Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, 
adopted by a Constitutional majority a joint resolution submit- 
ting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery 
throughout the Union, and that there is every reason to expect 
that it will be accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to 
become a part of the organic law. 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 177 

I have not access to the Life of Lincoln by Nicolay and 
Hay, but I am informed that it fully sustains the views I am 
presenting on this question. 

While it is true that some respectable men have asserted 
that Mr. Stephens told them of Mr. Lincoln's alleged offer, — 
and I have all their statements in writing or print, — there 
must have been some misunderstanding as to his language, 
for he was an honorable and truthful man, and a man of too 
much good sense to have made such allegations in the face 
of such record as is here presented. Among those who assert 
that Mr. Stephens made one or the other of those statements 
are the Hon. Henry Watterson, editor of the Courier-Jour- 
nal; Rev. E. A. Green of Virginia; Dr. R. J. Massey of 
Georgia, and Mr, Clark Howell of Georgia. Any impartird 
person who may read the statements of Mr. Green will see 
his gross ignorance of the matters of which he writes, and 
any one who will read what he says and what Dr. Massey 
says will see that the main purpose with them was to throw 
discredit on President Davis for not making peace on terms 
which, as the evidence shows, were not offered, and which 
we were fully informed could not be allowed the Confed- 
erates. And it is also clear that a prime object with Dr. 
Massey was to lionize Mr. Stephens while discrediting Mr. 
Davis. 

Among those who say Mr. Stephens denied making these 
statements are the Rev. F. C. Boykin of Georgia; Mr. R. F. 
Littig of Mississippi ; Hon. James Orr of South Carolina, 
who was at that time associated with Vice-President 
Stephens as a member of the Confederate Senate; Hon. 
Frank B. Sexton, then a member of the Confederate Con- 
gress; Col, Stephen W. Blount of Texas, who had been a 
schoolmate, and was a friend to Mr. Stephens, who, in 
answer to Blount's inquiry, wrote that he never made any 
such remark; Mr. Charles G. Newman, of Arkansas; and 
Governor A. H. Garland, of Arkansas, who was at the time 
of the Conference a member of the Confederate Senate, and 



178 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the roommate of Mr. Stephens, and who has been United 
States Senator, and Attorney-General of the United States. 
Governor Garland says that on the return of the Confederate 
Commissioners Mr. Stephens told him no terms of peace 
could be had except upon unconditional submission of the 
Confederates. 

It is not pleasant to have to consider such a conflict of 
statements. It has arisen between men of ability and char- 
acter in the discussion of one of the important historical 
questions which grew out of the great contest. And the 
published statements show that there was an extensive effort 
being made to pervert and falsify the history of that impor- 
tant conference so as to cast public censure on President 
Davis for not terminating the war upon conditions which 
were not offered. 

I also have a letter from Senator Vest of Missouri, who 
was then a Confederate Senator, in which he says : "R. M. T. 
Hunter, who was President pro tem. of the Confederate Sen- 
ate, told me in detail what occurred at the Fort Monroe 
Conference, and it agrees with your statements. No 
more truthful and conservative man than Hunter ever lived." 

The message of Mr. Lincoln of March 6, 1862, and his 
conference with border State representatives, at that time, 
and the statements he made to Mr. Stephens at the Hampton 
Roads Conference, and perhaps other expressions of his, 
showed, I think, his personal willingness that compensation 
should have been made for the slaves of the South, but the 
message referred to, and the conference which followed, were 
in March of the second year of the war; his suggestion then 
was that the border States of the Confederacy should adopt 
a general plan of emancipation upon the basis of compensa- 
tion, and that if this was done it would defeat the purpose 
of the Southern States. It was a bid to the border States to 
desert their Southern sister States. Those representing the 
border States declined to act on this suggestion, for it was 
only a suggestion ; for them to have acted in advance of any 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE 179 

move by the Northern States, and with no assurance that if 
they should adopt such a poHcy it would ever be accepted by 
the North would have been a species of madness. This, how- 
ever, had no direct relation to what occurred at Hampton 
Roads. 

I have no doubt that Mr. Stephens recited the statement 
made by President Lincoln at that conference to the effect 
that he, personally, would have no objection to an arrange- 
ment for compensation for the slaves if that would end the 
war, and that he knew persons who would be willing to pay 
$400,000,000 for that purpose. This is probably the basis 
and the only basis for the stories so often repeated about his 
offering at that conference to pay $400,000,000 if it would 
end the war. And when Mr. Stephens spoke of these two 
things, his hearers, I must suppose, misunderstood him, or 
misconstrued his words. It is better to view it thus and to 
assume that the stories referred to had their origin in that 
way than to believe that wilful misstatements were made. 

I served with Mr. Stephens in the Congress of the United 
States four years before the war. We served together in the 
Provisional Congress of the Confederacy; were thrown 
together more or less during the war ; and we served together 
in Congress for several years after the war. I always 
regarded him as an upright, honorable man. I was his 
friend, and admired his genius and ability, though I thought 
during the war, and have not changed my opinion, that he 
had very impracticable views as to the methods of conduct- 
ing the war. And I fear from his writings and from the 
statements attributed to him by others that during the latter 
part of the war, and after it closed, he allowed his great name 
and influence to give too much encouragement to malcon- 
tents, who caused embarrassment to the Confederate Gov- 
ernment, and who endeavored to cast unjust reflections on 
the policy, actions and services of President Davis, his Cabi- 
net and the Confederate Congress. 



CHAPTER XIV 
The Campaigns of 1864 and 1865 

After the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg, a pall fell over 
the Confederacy, for much had been expected of the invasion 
of the North. This shadow was deepened, too, by the fall of 
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, for the Confederacy was now 
cut in twain by the Mississippi River. But we still had Lee 
and his army and other armies, and therefore hope had not 
expired. 

In February, 1864, an expedition under the command of 
Colonel Dahlgren was sent from the Federal army, then in 
Virginia, having for its object the release of 22,000 Federal 
prisoners on Belle Isle and other prisons in Richmond, the 
destruction of the city of Richmond, and the killing of Presi- 
dent Davis and his Cabinet. Dahlgren's command was to 
cross the James River some distance above Richmond, pass 
down the south side of the river to Belle Isle, reach it through 
the shallow water and release the prisoners. On account of 
the swollen condition of the river, he was unable to cross it, 
and turned his command down a road on the north side. 

Governor Wise learned of the movement, and brought 
word of it to the city. This caused the Tredegar battalion 
and the regiment of clerks and citizens to be called out — an 
expedient resorted to only in emergencies. At a bend in the 
road not far above Richmond, he met the battalion of work- 
men, employees of the Tredegar works. The battalion was 
dispersed by Dahlgren. In the mean time Colonel 
McAnerny's regiment was hastening to the defense of the 
city. This command was in a large measure made up of men 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1864 AND 1865 181 

who had been soldiers, but who by wounds were unfitted for 
regular duty. McAnerny, himself, had been adjutant of an 
Alabama regiment, but had been incapacitated for field 
service by wounds and was a clerk in the Post Office Depart- 
ment. 

A citizen who witnessed the defeat of the Tredegar bat- 
talion, riding rapidly to give the alarm, met McAnerny's 
regiment— not Colonel G. W. C. Lee's, as Mr. Davis through 
mistake states in his history — just outside the suburbs of the 
city, on the road by which Dahlgren was advancing, and 
notified them of the pending danger. It having become 
dark with a drizzling rain, Colonel McAnerny formed his 
line of battle across the road in a field, and threw forward a 
line of skirmishers, who, when the enemy approached, were 
instructed to keep up a desultory fire as they fell back to the 
line of battle, in order to define the line of attack. The skir- 
mishers acted with admirable coolness, falling back slowly 
and firing to keep their line defined, until they brought Dahl- 
gren's command in close range of McAnerny's regiment. 
The men had been ordered to lie down, until the enemy had 
come within range, when they were ordered to rise and fire. 
This they did admirably, killing and wounding some of the 
men and horses of the enemy, and causing them to retreat 
precipitately. They crossed the Chickahominy and York 
rivers in the direction of King and Queen counties. There 
some furloughed soldiers, home guards and citizens, having 
been apprised of their coming, ambushed them, killing Dahl- 
gren and a number of his men, and wounding and making 
prisoners of the rest. To quote Mr. Davis (Rise and Fall 
of the Confederate Government, Vol. IL, p. 506) : 

On the body of Dahlgren was found an address to his officers 
and men, giving special orders and instructions, and one giv- 
ing his itinerary, the whole disclosing the unsoldierly means 
an'd purposes of the raid ; such as disguising the men in our 
uniform, carrying supplies of oakum and turpentine to burn 
Richmond, and after releasing the prisoners on Belle Isle, to 



182 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

exhort them to destroy the beautiful city, while on all was 
pressed the special injunction that the city must be burned and 
"Jeff Davis and his Cabinet killed." 

Photographic copies of those papers were made and sent 
to the Cabinets of Europe to show the barbarous infractions 
of the laws of war among civilized nations, to which we 
were exposed. 

President Davis had on more than one occasion threatened 
retaliation for the violation of the usages of war; and at a 
meeting of the Cabinet, after the above facts were brought 
out, the members of the Cabinet united in urging upon the 
President that there should be no more threatening of retali- 
ation, that the prisoners who had been taken should draw 
lots and every tenth man be shot; and that the President 
of the United States should be informed of what we had 
done, and of the reasons for such action. Mr. Davis objected 
to shooting unarmed men, observing that if we had known 
these facts and could have shot them with arms in their 
hands, it would have been all right. 

There was on this point more feeling expressed by the 
members of the Cabinet, and seemingly more danger of a 
serious disagreement than occurred at any other of its meet- 
ings. Some of them called attention to the monstrous 
purpose of burning the city, and of exposing the women and 
children to the infuriated mob of released prisoners, and the 
purposed murder of the President and Cabinet, and insisted 
on their recommendations being carried out. The President 
in an emphatic manner said that he would not permit an 
unarmed prisoner to be shot; and so the matter ended. 

There was one battle during the war which has not gone 
into history, and as I was an active agent in it, I shall tell 
something of it. One morning in the summer of 1864 can- 
non firing was heard to the northwest of Richmond, and we 
were at a loss to understand it, as we had no information of 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1S64 AND 1865 183 

the approach of an enemy. As we had no troops there, Sec- 
retary Mallory and I got our horses and galloped out to 
where the noise was. When we got near our old line of 
intrenchments we saw Colonel Lyon, one of Richmond's 
most prominent citizens, riding along the line of intrench- 
ments, gesticulating as if giving directions. When we 
reached him, we inquired what he was doing. He said : 
"Commanding the forces ; Reagan, you command the right ; 
Mallory, you the left, and I will take the center," 

We rode up and down the line of intrenchments for some 
time, as if giving directions to men, with the shells cracking 
over us, until the firing ceased. The attacking party con- 
sisted of a regiment of cavalry and some pieces of light 
artillery, and if I remember correctly they were commanded 
by Colonel Grierson, who had prior to this raided exten- 
sively in Mississippi ; but I am not positive as to the name of 
the commander. Colonel Lyon's residence was out near that 
line of intrenchment, which accounted for his presence. The 
Federals evidently feared that there were men in the 
trenches, but if they had known, there was nothing to have 
prevented their marching unresisted into the city. Several 
times during the war Richmond seemed to have been provi- 
dentially saved from capture. 

When in 1864 General Grant had taken up his march on 
Richmond, and the battle of the Wilderness had been fought 
and he had moved forward toward Spottsylvania Court 
House, Sheridan with a force of something more than 8,000 
cavalry interposed between Lee and Richmond. He rightly 
thought that he might take the city by surprise. But Gen, 
J, E. B. Stuart, our gallant cavalier and great cavalry leader, 
with a force of about 1,100, hung on his flank. At this time 
there were but two brigades of infantry near for the defense 
of the capital, which had been notified of its danger by 
couriers dispatched by Stuart. A brigade commanded by 
General Fry was ordered up from below the city, and put in 



184 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

position on the Yellow Tavern road, by which it was 
expected Sheridan would come. The regiment of clerks and 
citizens was called out and posted on our line of defense on 
the Meadow Bridge road. The Tredegar battalion was put 
in position further to the right. The Confederate line was 
defended by several batteries of siege guns. Sheridan came 
up on the Meadow Bridge road instead of the Yellow Tavern 
road, and began his attack early in the day. The regiment 
of clerks and citizens had wanted me to command them, but 
the President and Cabinet, when the matter was mentioned 
to them, advised against it, saying that I might be wanted 
at both places at the same time. At my suggestion. Colonel 
McAnerny was put in command of the regiment. 

Before the fighting was fairly under way. General Elzy, 
who was in command of our forces, and Colonel McAnerny 
came to me and requested me to command the regiment dur- 
ing the fight. I declined to do so on the ground that it would 
be unjust to take the command on the first opportunity 
McAnerny had of being engaged in battle. They then pro- 
posed that I should command the battalion which was sup- 
porting the battery on the Meadow Bridge road, and the two 
batteries to the right of it. I answered that I would do that, 
but would not take McAnerny's command from him. 

The artillery firing now became rapid on both sides ; Fitz- 
hugh Lee's brigade of cavalry was hanging on Sheridan's 
rear, and Gordon of North Carolina, with his brigade of 
cavalry — both of those brigades being under General Stu- 
art — was fighting heavily on Sheridan's right flank. About 
twelve o'clock General Grade's brigade of infantry came up 
from Chafin's farm below Richmond, where it had been 
placed with Fry's brigade to protect the city against the 
threatened attack from that direction. General Gracie 
inquired of me where General Elzy was, and I told him that 
half an hour before he had gone up our line to the left. He 
said that he would move out in front and do what he could 
to relieve Lee and Gordon. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1864 AND 1865 185 

He formed his line in front of our works, sending his skir- 
mishers forward ; he requested me to place three hundred of 
my best men outside of our works, to be ordered up if found 
necessary. While I was forming- my line of three hundred, 
a friend who had come out from Richmond brought me a 
bottle of what he said was the finest brandy. I saw the 
officers of Gracie's command come together, I supposed for 
consultation. They had been in the rain during the latter 
part of the night and all the morning. I rode to where they 
were assembled and told them a friend had brought me a 
bottle of brandy, and that I supposed they needed it. They 
disposed of it very quickly, and General Gracie told me that 
when the battle was over he would have me promoted. 

The skirmishers were already under fire and General 
Gracie advanced his command until two Federal batteries 
with infantry supports were enfilading his line from the 
right. He then changed front at an angle of about forty-five 
degrees, and marched forward until he drove the batteries 
away. He then changed his front to his original course, and 
moved forward in the open field, I suppose three-quarters 
of a mile wide, until he reached the woods occupied by the 
enemy. His line being then enfiladed from both ends and 
confronted by a superior force, he slowly withdrew toward 
our works. 

All these movements were made with as much regularity 
as on an old field muster. They were certainly the hand- 
somest and most regular movements I ever saw on a field of 
battle. He rode about among his command apparently as 
cool as if directing farm operations. He lost some seventy- 
five men in killed and wounded ; his horse was struck three 
times, and he himself received one or two slight wounds. 
The battle lasted until about the middle of the afternoon, 
when General Sheridan withdrew, and moved off in a north- 
westerly direction. 

I witnessed a piece of heroic conduct on that occasion, 
which deserves to be noticed. There was a two-story frame 



186 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

house on a mound surrounded by some trees, so near to the 
battery on my right as to enable the enemy's sharpshooters, 
who occupied it, to reach our men with their shots. It had 
rained and the platform on which our guns stood was wet 
and slippery, and in firing one of the guns it bounded off the 
platform. I rode to where it was and was giving directions 
to the men about getting it back on the platform, when a 
non-commissioned officer, whose name I cannot recall, came 
to me and said that if I would permit it, he would take some 
men and drive the sharpshooters out of that house and burn 
it. My reply was, "I shall not object to your doing so, but 
will not order it." He went away and in a few minutes 
returned, saying that he had his men. There were, I think, 
eight of them. They jumped outside of the works and went 
at a double quick, half-bent with trailed arms. Three of 
them fell before they reached the house, but they drove the 
Federals away and burned it. 

In the effort of General Stuart to impede the advance of 
Sheridan, when near Richmond, in a hand-to-hand struggle 
he received a mortal wound by a shot so close to him that it 
burnt his clothes. 

General Stuart was an Episcopalian, and I attended his 
funeral services at one of the Episcopal churches of Rich- 
mond. As if to add to the solemnity of the occasion, while 
the funeral services were going on the noise of the enemy's 
cannon made it partially difficult to hear what was said. His 
death, following that of General Jackson, added to the deep 
gloom produced by the death of that invincible leader. In 
life General Stuart was as genial and lovable in his social 
intercourse as he was skilful and brave in battle. 

In May, 1864, Gen. B. F. Butler landed a force, about 
40,000 strong, on the south side of the James River, above 
the mouth of the Appomattox, for the purpose of cutting the 
railroad connection of Richmond with the South. He 
actually reached and took possession of the railroad between 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1864 AND iSo^ 187 

Richmond and Petersburg. It devolved on General Lee 
then, with an inadequate force, to defend both Richmond and 
Petersburg; and he v^as perplexed with this difficult prob- 
lem. If he should take soldiers from the north side of the 
James to enable him to repossess the railroad, it would 
endanger Richmond. If he should take them from the east 
side of the Appomattox this would endanger Petersburg; 
and the loss of either place would have been most unfortu- 
nate for the Confederate cause. 

In this condition of things Gregg's brigade (formerly 
Hood's) was confronting the Federal forces which occupied 
the railroad. Suddenly, without orders, and as the result 
of an accidental movement of the brigade standard, it rushed 
forward and drove the Federals from the line of the railroad 
and thus relieved this embarrassing situation, by reestablish- 
ing communication between Richmond and Petersburg. I 
inquired of General Gregg how this came about. He told 
me they were expecting orders to advance ; that he was at 
one end of his line and the standard of the brigade at the 
other; that the flag was moved forward, he did not know 
by whom or for what purpose, and that the men assumed 
the order to advance had come, and dashed forward, driving 
the enemy before them. 

Great was the relief this daring movement afforded to 
General Lee and the authorities and people of Richmond and 
Petersburg. While it was accomplished with much less 
sacrifice of life than was suffered by this brigade on other 
occasions, we may hardly overestimate its importance. And 
a few weeks later the pictorial papers of London and Liver- 
pool which came to us contained very amusing and interest- 
ing pictures and descriptions of Lee's 'Texans straggling 
to the front." 

It may be allowable for me, in this connection, to mention 
two other instances, illustrating the heroic service of Hood's 
brigade, which occurred after Gen. John Gregg became its 
commander. One of them was at the opening of the cam- 



188 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

paign of 1864. After the great battle of the 4th of May, 
1864, known as the battle of the Wilderness, General Grant, 
during the night, moved a portion of his force to the left 
for the purpose of turning General Lee's right, and inter- 
posing between him and Richmond. General Lee at the 
same time commenced a counter movement for the purpose 
of enabling General Longstreet's corps to turn Grant's left 
and thus to double him back on the Rappahannock. 

While Longstreet was moving into position along the 
turnpike, the Federals just at dawn, with three lines of infan- 
try, attacked the divisions of Heth and Wilcox. Many of 
their men wearied by a day of battle, succeeded by a night 
march and the digging of intrenchments, had fallen dow-n to 
sleep, and the sudden attack of the Federals threw them into 
some confusion, and a number of them struggling to the 
rear so blocked up the turnpike as to impede Longstreet's 
progress. General Gregg's brigade being in the front of 
Longstreet's corps. General Lee rode up and directed him 
to move out his brigade and "stop those people" (meaning 
the Federal forces), until Longstreet could execute his 
movement. 

Gregg moved his brigade out to the front, passing through 
the stragglers, and having passed the Confederate line of 
works, halted his command to re-align it. In ordering them 
to go forward, he announced that the eye of General Lee w^as 
on them. In his anxiety for the success of this movement 
General Lee had followed them, and had ridden up on the 
line of works, when a soldier took hold of his bridle to stop 
his horse. General Lee spoke to him, and the soldier let go 
and the General rode down in front of the line of works. 
When Gregg announced to his men that the eye of General 
Lee was on them, they faced about without an order, and 
shouted, "General Lee, go back ! go back ! we know- what you 
want, and it will be done if you will go back." General Lee 
took off his hat, and the tears ran down his cheeks. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1 864 AND 1 865 189 

Then the brigade moved forward to encounter the enemy. 
They were outnumbered in front and flanked at both ends, 
but stayed the advance of the enemy until Longstreet so far 
executed his movement as to uncover their front; in doing 
which, through mistaken identity, he was seriously wounded 
by the Confederates, and General Jenkins, who was with 
him, was killed. Gregg passed the old line of works with 
seven hundred and eleven muskets. He lost over four hun- 
dred in killed and wounded, and he had three horses killed 
under him during the fight. He told me that if they had not 
been relieved by General Longstreet he believed the old 
brigade would have been annihilated, for, in his opinion, 
the Texans had not intended to go back alive. 

I am indebted for the foregoing facts to General Gregg's 
account of them to me. And there was no more sincere and 
truthful man than Gregg, who at last was killed in advance 
of his command, in an assault upon a strongly intrenched 
line near Richmond. 

Elsewhere I have spoken of President Davis being under 
fire at the battle of Seven Pines. While I w^as not a witness 
to it, he spoke in the Cabinet of being on the battlefield, in 
the open ground between the Chickahominy and Mechanics- 
ville, when the ground was being swept by the shot and shell 
of the enemy, and of his being ordered from the field by Gen- 
eral Lee. He jocularly remarked that he had supposed him- 
self to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but that 
General Lee insisted on his retiring, with the statement, 
"This is no place for you." Either anxiety for the results, 
or military training and instinct seemed to draw him to the 
battlefield, and to points of danger. 

The Hon. Ely Bruce, a member of the Confederate Con- 
gress from Kentucky, said to me that he had never seen a 
battle, that I might know when one was to occur, and if so 
he would be glad if I would let him know. A few days 
later on meeting him, I told him that if he would meet me 



190 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

at the Post Office Department at ten o'clock the next morn- 
ing, we would go down the Petersburg road, and might 
witness a battle. General Beauregard was then in command 
of the Confederate forces between Richmond and Peters- 
burg, confronting the Federals under Gen. B. F. Butler. 
General Whiting was in command of the Confederate forces 
at Petersburg, I had been advised that a battle was likely to 
occur between them on the day to which I refer, and that 
the attack on the Federals was to be made by General Whit- 
ing on the Petersburg side, and that the sound of his guns 
was to be the signal for an attack by Beauregard from the 
Richmond side. It turned out that the Federals had deter- 
mined to bring on the battle on the same day ; so that they 
attacked Beauregard's forces, and during the battle were 
driven back from the open ground into the woods. But 
nothing was heard from General Whiting. The Confeder- 
ates occupied a line which had been fortified by the Federals 
just at the edge of the woods ; but their advance was stopped 
at this line. 

The general officers met at the Petersburg turnpike for 
consultation, and while talking, one of them was hit in the 
back by a bullet ; the others joked him about being shot in 
the back. Still nothing was heard from Whiting. General 
Butler had pressed his artillery and sharpshooters near 
enough to the Confederate line to cause some danger and kept 
up an almost continuous fusillade. In this condition a shower 
of rain came up, and President Davis, who was present, rode 
under a leaning silver maple tree and a young officer threw 
his water-proof cape over his shoulders. At this time Gen- 
eral Beauregard approached and suggested to the President 
that they had better go into one of the shanties near by, which 
had sheltered the soldiers, and get out of the rain. Before 
that, however, some of the officers and two of the staff 
of the President had come to me and asked me to try to get 
him to leave the field, as persons were getting hit occasionally 
and he was as likely to be struck as others, and that he could 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1 864 AND 1 865 191 

be of no use there. I presented their request, which he dis- 
regarded, going instead with Beauregard into the shanty. 
A soldier boy accompanied them, and presently a shell from 
the guns of the enemy took one of the boy's arms off near his 
shoulder while he was standing by them. General Beaure- 
gard suggested that the enemy seemed to have the range of 
that place, and that they had better go across the turnpike 
to the open ground, which they did. The shells continued to 
sweep the ground there also and Beauregard suggested that 
they seemed to have the range everywhere. 

At last the firing ceased, and we and the President and his 
staff officers returned to the city. It turned out that the 
reason General Whiting did not commence the attack, as 
expected, was because he was drunk, which he frankly 
admitted in a letter to the President. He was not disciplined 
as he ought to have been, for such conduct. Because of his 
great popularity and valuable service in a number of battles 
before that, he was permitted to retain his command. The 
next day at a meeting of the Cabinet, the President spoke of 
my taking the message to him requesting him to retire from 
the field, and said he realized as well as the officers did that 
his presence was not necessary, but added that it was very 
inconvenient to ride off under fire. 

On the 3rd of June, 1864, the second battle of Cold Har- 
bor was fought, in which General Lee had less than 50,000 
men, while General Grant had more than 100,000. In that 
battle the loss on the Federal side was over 13,000, while the 
loss on the Confederate side was probably not as many hun- 
dred. This disparity was due to the fact that the Confed- 
erates were assaulted in their trenches. 

On the morning of that day. Judges Lyons and Meredith, 
two of the State judges living in Richmond, and myself, rode 
out to our line of battle, crossing the Chickahominy at 
Mechanicsville, and passing along a few hundred yards in 
the rear of our line of battle until we came in sight of General 



192 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Lee's headquarters, on the field at the Gaines' Mill farm. Sev- 
eral squads of Federal prisoners were brought back to the 
road we were riding on as we passed down the line. When 
we got in sight of General Lee's headquarters, I suggested to 
Judge Lyons and Judge Meredith that I would ride down to 
where General Lee was. They did not go any farther. We 
could see that the enemy's shells were falling on the field 
about General Lee. A few hundred yards in the rear of his 
headquarters were probably fifteen or twenty acres of forest 
trees, surrounded by cultivated land. At that time there was 
a good deal of anxiety, both in the army and among the 
civilians, about General Lee's exposing himself too much in 
battle, accompanied by a feeling that his loss would be of the 
greatest consequence ; and Judges Lyons and Meredith sug- 
gested that I should inquire of General Lee whether he might 
not send his orders and receive his reports, covered behind 
that timber, as well as in his then exposed situation. I said 
to them that I would see the General, but did not know about 
making suggestions to him as to his headquarters in the 
midst of a battle. 

When I reached the camp there was none but an orderly 
with him, his staff officers being away on duty. After pass- 
ing the compliments of the day, I said to him it seemed that 
a great deal of artillery was being used. 

*'Yes," he replied, "more than usual on both sides." He 
added, "That does not do much harm here." Then, waving 
his hand toward the front, where the rattle of musketry made 
a noise like the tearing of a sheet, he observed : "It is that 
that kills men." He then remarked that General Grant was 
hurling columns from six to ten deep against his lines at three 
places for the purpose of breaking them. 

"General," I said to him, "if he breaks your line, what 
reserve have you?" 

"Not a regiment," he replied. "And," he added, "that has 
been my condition ever since the fighting commenced on the 
Rappahannock, If I shorten my lines to provide a reserve he 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1864 AND l86q 193 

will turn me; if I weaken my lines to provide a reserve, he 
will break them." He also said that he had to fight and 
march his men without sufficient rest, and that exhaustion 
and the want of vegetables had caused the loss of more men 
than the bullets of the enemy. He said he had advised them 
to use the buds of sassafras and of grapevines as a substitute 
for vegetables, but that this was a poor substitute. He asked 
me, on my return to Richmond, to see the commissary-gen- 
eral before going home, and to urge him to send as fast as 
possible all the potatoes and onions he could. "Some of the 
men now have scurvy," he said. 

I said to the General that there was some uneasiness about 
his being exposed so much, and that Judges Lyons and Mere- 
dith, who had come out with me, had suggested the inquiry 
whether he might not cover himself by the forest trees in 
his rear, and from there send his orders and receive his 
reports as well as from this exposed position. 

His reply was that it was best for him to be as well up 
toward the front as he could, and that when the shells had 
begun to fall on the field, he had ordered the wagons con- 
taining the quartermaster, commissary, medical and ord- 
nance stores to fall back behind the forest trees. He added : 
"I have as good generals as any commander ever had, and I 
know it, but still it is well for me to know the position of our 
lines. To illustrate this," he continued, "in forming my 
right, I directed that it should cover Turkey Hill, which juts 
out on the Chickahominy valley so as to command cannon 
range up and down the stream. In forming the line, how- 
ever, this was not done, and on yesterday afternoon I had to 
direct General Breckinridge to recover that position by an 
assault which cost us a good many men." 

General Lee's lines were then about seven miles from 
Richmond, and he was confronted by a well equipped and 
well organized army of more than double his numbers. And 
thus situated in the midst of a great battle, he was calm and 
self-possessed, with no evidence of excitement; and in his 



194 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

conversation showed he was thinking of the condition and 
wants of the brave men under his command, as well as 
guarding with invincible courage the besieged capital of the 
Confederacy. Mrs. Jefferson Davis, the widow of the Presi- 
dent, in her Memoir of him, says that "in April, 1864, in 
General Lee's tent meat was served twice a week. His bill 
of fare was a head of cabbage boiled in salt water, sweet 
potatoes, and a pone of corn bread; when he invited an 
officer to dine with him he had, to his astonishment, four 
inches of middling; every one refused from politeness, and 
the servant excused the smallness of the piece by saying it 
was borrowed." This shows how the greatest general of the 
age consented to live and to suffer privations in the struggle 
for justice to the people he was serving. When we remember 
that if General Lee had taken sides against his own people 
and State, he could have been Commander-in-Chief of the 
armies of the United States, and that he had to abandon his 
great landed estate and palatial residence fronting Wash- 
ington City on the Potomac, and that his family, but for the 
kindness of friends, would have become homeless refugees, 
we can understand the unparalleled sacrifice this heroic gen- 
eral made in supporting and defending the cause of right. I 
can but feel that God made him one of the bravest, best, and 
most patriotic, as well as one of the greatest of men. 

August 29, 1864, a severely contested battle was fought, 
on the north side of James River, below Chafin's farm, 
between General Field's division of Confederates, and a por- 
tion of the Federal army. President Davis and I rode down 
some nine or ten miles to the battlefield. When we reached 
our outer line of works we were told the fighting had 
occurred about one mile to the left of that point, and that the 
firing had ceased. We rode to General Field's headquarters, 
and found him in much distress, his brother-in-law, who was 
a member of his staff, having been killed. We saw the Fed- 
eral soldiers under a flag of truce, in the rear of our line, 
burying their dead, and the Confederates under a flag of 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1864 AND 1865 195 

truce, in the rear of the Federal lines, burying our dead. 
The two armies had alternately been driven back and then 
recovered their ground, and when the fighting ceased each 
occupied its original position. 

The President wished to see General Lee, who, as General 
Field told us, was on our line about four miles to the right. 
Field said to the President that the country to General Lee's 
headquarters was wooded and rough and that he would send 
one of his staff to pilot us. On our way, when we reached 
the point where we had first struck our line, the young officer 
piloting us rode across it, the President remarking that this 
was our outer line. But that officer could not have heard 
what he said, as he made no response. When he had gone 
two or three hundred yards we heard hallooing, and looking 
to the left on higher ground, saw persons beckoning to us. 
We halted, and Judge George Clark, who now lives at Waco, 
Texas, then commanding the company on that part of the 
line, came down to us and said that seeing us outside of our 
lines, he had ordered his men to fire on us, when he noticed 
our Confederate gray. He told us that in half a minute we 
would have been in the Federal lines, and would have been 
dead or prisoners. It is needless to say that we beat a retreat. 
The President, as may be supposed, was not in a good 
humor ; and, as we rode on, recognizing the mistake of our 
guide and seeing that he was much mortified, I sought to 
relieve his feelings, and went forward and suggested to the 
President that the young man was much hurt and that it 
might be well for him to give him a word of relief. Mr. 
Davis slacked his pace a little, and when the young officer 
came up, spoke of his serious mistake ; but in a way which 
somewhat relieved his embarrassment. 

It was some time after nightfall when we reached General 
Lee's headquarters ; and in the course of the conversation he 
said it had been over one hundred days since the fighting 
began on the Rappahannock, and that there had not been a 
dav in which some of his men had not been killed. 



CHAPTER XV 
The Surrender of Our Armies 

In March, 1865, the army defending Richmond had 
become much reduced, and suffered more or less from insuf- 
ficient suppHes. Our lines for the defense of Richmond and 
Petersburg were some thirty miles long, and the force under 
General Lee barely sufficed for a skirmish line. On the 
morning of the 2d of April (Sunday), General Lee com- 
menced the withdrawal of his entire force from the front. 
Being anxious about the situation, I was with the Secretary 
of War until pretty late Saturday night. On the next morn- 
ing I returned to the War Department at an early hour. 
While there the Secretary received two dispatches from Gen- 
eral Lee, saying in substance that his whole line would retire 
from its position at seven o'clock that evening, and making 
suggestions for the security of the public archives. Imme- 
diately on receipt of this information I started to commu- 
nicate it to the President, and on the way to the mansion 
met him and Governor Frank R. Lubbock, a member of his 
staff, on their way to church, and informed him of the dis- 
patches from General Lee to the Secretary of War. 

In making this statement I am not unmindful of the fact 
that it has gone into history that President Davis received a 
dispatch from General Lee that morning while at church, 
which is assumed to be his first information as to the with- 
drawal of our army. In President Davis's Rise and Fall of 
the Confederate Government, he uses the following lan- 
guage : "In the forenoon of Sunday, April 2d, I received in 
church a telegram announcing that the army would retire 
from Petersburg at night." 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 197 

This is true ; it is also true that I gave him the first infor- 
mation of that fact. And it is not unnatural, mine being- an 
unofficial communication, that he should state as a historical 
fact that his first official information reached him while at 
church. 

That Sunday was a sad day for us all. The President 
called his Cabinet together and they were met by John 
Letcher, the Governor of Virginia, and Mr. Mayo, the Mayor 
of Richmond. There were naturally many and serious ques- 
tions to be discussed, and among them the disposition that 
was to be made of the public archives. A considerable por- 
tion of them, mainly from the Executive Department, were 
destroyed. The most important papers of the Post Office 
Department had been sent away from Richmond in the care 
of an employee. There was hardly time for any other con- 
sideration ; the booming of the guns of the enemy told of the 
approaching host, and preparations were hurriedly made for 
the departure of the governmental forces. The President 
and the members of the Cabinet, with the heads of the 
bureaus of the various departments, together with many of 
the clerks, made ready for leaving. 

The streets of the city were filled with eager and stolid- 
countenanced people, and everything was hurry and bustle 
and preparation, for never before had Richmond felt that the 
doom of capture was in store for her. During four long- 
years, the armies of the enemy had been beaten away from 
her very gates, but now the sad realization of the inevitable 
seemed to possess the gallant Confederate citizens. During 
the years of conflict they had become inured to the rattle of 
their windows by the thunder of the Federal guns, but now 
all was suddenly changed. The chief problem with the citi- 
zens, as numbers of them expressed it to me, was whether 
they should attempt to leave the city or to remain at their 
homes and submit to the invading army. The question, how- 
ever, was practically predetermined for them. Limited trans- 
portation facilities over the single remaining line of railroad 



198 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

south, and the use of that for the conveyance of such of the 
archives as could be carried, together with the demands made 
upon it by the officials of the Confederacy, left but small 
opportunity for the inhabitants to escape; a few, however, 
were accommodated on the train which bore away the 
archives and the Government officials. 

The fall of the capital of the Confederacy apparently fore- 
shadowed the fall of the Confederacy itself, and the gloom 
which pervaded all ranks of society was appalling. The pen 
of man cannot be dipped in ink black enough to draw the 
darkness of that nig-ht which fell over Richmond. Through- 
out the city reigned a quiet, undemonstrative confusion, such 
as the realization of the inevitable draws with it — hardly a 
soul in all the capital found rest in sleep, for on the morrow 
it was certain the stars and bars would be replaced by the 
stars and stripes, and the dream of an independent Confed- 
eracy would have blown over like a mist from the sea. I like 
not to recall the terrible tenseness of that one night with the 
awful message it bore to the Government of the Confederacy. 

It was near midnight when the President and his Cabinet 
left the heroic city. As our train, frightfully overcrowded, 
rolled along toward Danville we were oppressed with sorrow 
for those we left behind us and with fears for the safety of 
General Lee and his army. At the last Cabinet conference 
our hope had been, and it was General Lee's, that he might 
join with General Johnston in North Carolina, and that their 
combined armies might interpose between General Grant and 
General Sherman. There was in this movement a gleam of 
hope, for faith in the success of the Confederacy had as yet 
not been wholly abandoned by the Cabinet. We were speed- 
ing on toward Danville when a message came bearing the 
melancholy tidings that General Lee had actually abandoned 
the lines about Petersburg and Richmond and was in retreat. 
After almost constant fighting and a most heroic struggle, 
for weary days, against overwhelming odds. General Lee 
was compelled to surrender at Appomattox the army which 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 199 

had fought so many battles and won so many victories over 
superior numbers. 

We reached Danville on the morning of the third of 
April, and remained there several days. When we were 
leaving news was brought to us that the citizens were robbing 
the commissary and quartermaster's stores. We made no 
stop until we reached Greensboro, North Carolina, on the 
nth instant. The President called from the field Generals 
Johnston and Beauregard to discuss with them the situation, 
for they commanded the forces in that State, and practically 
our only army in that part of the Confederacy. 

After receiving their report of the condition of the army 
there, the President called for the members of the Cabinet 
and General Johnston to meet him at ten o'clock the next 
morning at the house of Colonel John Taylor Wood, a mem- 
ber of his staff, for the purpose of considering what should 
be done in view of the conditions reported by these generals. 
The army of General Lee having surrendered, this was 
our last hope in that part of the Confederacy. They reported 
that they were unable to meet successfully the forces com- 
manded by General Sherman, and that retreat would render 
it necessary to abandon a part of their artillery in order to 
get horses for purposes of transportation. In addition to 
this they suggested that a retreat would cause the desolation 
of the country through which it was made. 

Our meeting at Colonel Wood's home the next morning 
was one of the most solemnly funereal I ever attended, as it 
was apparent that we must consider the probable loss of our 
cause. When we were convened, a general conversation was 
indulged in for some time. No one seemed disposed to take 
up the business for which we were assembled. With feelings 
I cannot well describe, I stated that if we were to proceed 
as in a council of war, where the youngest spoke first, I was 
prepared to give my views. The President and the other 
members of the Cabinet suggested that I should proceed. I 
then proposed in substance, as bases for negotiations for 
peace with the enemy, the following : 



200 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

"I. The disbanding of the miHtary forces of the Con- 
federacy. 

"II. The recognition of the Constitution and authority 
of the Government of the United States. 

'TIL The preservation and continuance of the existing 
State Governments. 

"IV. The preservation to the people of all their political 
rights and the rights of person and property secured to them 
by the Constitution of the United States and of their several 
States. 

"V. Freedom from future prosecution or penalties for 
participation in the present war. 

"VI. Agreement to a general suspension of hostilities 
pending these negotiations." 

General Breckinridge, Secretary of War, expressed his 
approval of these suggestions ; Secretary Mallory. of the 
Navy, did likewise ; and Attorney-General Davis commended 
them ; but the Secretary of State, Benjamin, announced him- 
self in favor of continuing the struggle. The Cabinet real- 
ized the hopelessness of such a course and decided against 
him. The President then instructed General Johnston, on 
returning to his command, to present these views to General 
Sherman. 

On the next day, I think it was, the President and his party 
left Greensboro for Charlotte, North Carolina. But before 
we started the citizens began raiding the quartermaster and 
commissary supplies, and pillaging the stores of the town. 
They were finally fired on and driven off. 

While General Johnston was with us at Greensboro he 
told President Davis that General Sherman had authorized 
him to say that he (Davis) might leave the country on a 
United States vessel and take with him whoever and what- 
ever he pleased. To this the President replied, "I shall do 
no act which will put me under obligations to the Federal 
Government." This was not given to the public by any mem- 
ber of the Cabinet, so far as I know, as we did not know 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 201 

whether General Sherman was authorized to make such an 
offer, until he made it public in an after-dinner speech in 
New York in the summer of 1866. In that address he said 
he had inquired of President Lincoln whether he should cap- 
ture Mr. Davis or let him go ; and that Mr. Lincoln replied 
by an anecdote about a temperance lecturer in Illinois, who, 
when cold and wet, had stopped for the night at a wayside 
inn. The landlord, noting his condition, inquired whether 
he would have a glass of brandy. "No," came the reply ; "I 
am a temperance lecturer and do not drink." However, 
after a pause, he said to the landlord, "I shall be obliged to 
you for a drink of water, and if you should put a little 
brandy in it unbeknownst to me, it will be all right." 

When we had gotten about half way to Charlotte, the 
President received a dispatch from General Johnston, 
informing him that he was in communication with General 
Sherman, and requesting that some one should be sent to 
assist in the negotiations. Mr. Davis requested the attend- 
ance of General Breckinridge and myself, and, stating the 
substance of the dispatch, observed that as I had proposed 
the bases for the negotiations, he desired me to go, and that 
as there might be a refusal to treat with the civil authorities 
of the Confederacy, he wished General Breckinridge to go 
to represent the Army.. 

Breckinridge and myself left at once, traveling that night, 
the next day and the second night until near daylight, when 
we reached the headquarters of General Johnston. (Much 
of the railroad track had been torn up and a number of 
bridges burned, which caused this delay.) General Hampton 
was with him. We had breakfast toward sun-up; and 
shortly afterward General Johnston suggested that he and 
General Breckinridge would go to the place of meeting and 
entertain General Sherman until I could put in writing our 
proposed terms. This programme was followed, and I sent 
the paper to General Johnston, who subsequently stated that 
it contained with slisfht variations the terms of the armistice 



202 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

agreed on by those generals. I did not join in the negotia- 
tions beyond this, because objection had been made to the 
recognition of the civil government of the Confederacy. But 
the Federal Government refused to recognize the terms of 
surrender as proposed between Johnston and Sherman ; and 
so an arrangement was drawn up similar to that effected at 
Appomattox, and General Johnston's army was surrendered. 
On receipt of information of the surrender of General 
Johnston, Mr. Davis requested the written opinion of the 
members of his Cabinet as to what course should be adopted 
in this extremity. In my opinion, which contained a pretty 
full review of the situation, I advised acquiescence in the 
terms of surrender. It was as follows : 

Charlotte, North Carolina, April 22, 1865. 
To THE President. 

Sir : In obedience to your request for the opinions in writ- 
ing of the members of the Cabinet, on the questions : First, as 
to whether you should assent to the preliminary agreement 
of the 1 8th instant between Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, of the 
Confederate Army, and Maj.-Gen. W. T. Sherman, of the 
Army of the United States, for the suspension of hostilities 
and the adjustment of the difficulties between the two countries ; 
and if so, second, the proper mode of executing this agree- 
ment on our part, I must advise — painful as the necessity is, 
in view of the relative condition of the armies and resources 
of the belligerents — the acceptance of the terms of the agree- 
ment. 

General Lee, the general-in-chief of our armies, has been 
compelled to surrender our principal army, heretofore employed 
in the defense of our capital, with a loss of a very large part of 
our ordnance, arms, munitions of war, and military stores of 
all kinds, with what remained of our naval establishment. The 
officers of the civil government have been compelled to aban- 
don the capital, carrying with them the archives, and thus to 
close, for the time at least, the regular operations of its several 
Departments, with no place now open to us at Avhich we can 
reestablish and put these Departments in operation, with any 
prospects of permanency or security for the transaction of the 
public business and the carrying on of the Government. The 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 203 

army under the command of General Johnston has been reduced 
and this force is, from demorahzation and despondency, melt- 
ing away rapidly by the troops returning to their homes singly 
and in numbers large and small ; it being the opinion of Gen- 
erals Johnston and Beauregard that with the men and means 
at their command, they can oppose no serious obstacle to the 
advance of General Sherman's army. General Johnston is of 
the opinion that the enemy's forces now in the field exceed 
ours in numbers by probably ten to one. Our forces in the 
South, though still holding the fortifications at Mobile, have 
been unable to prevent the fall of Selma and Montgomery in 
Alabama, and of Columbus and Macon in Georgia, with their 
magazines, work-shops, and stores of supplies. 

The army west of the Mississippi is unavailable for the arrest 
of the victorious career of the enemy east of that river, and 
is inadequate for the defense of the country west of it. The 
country is worn down by a brilliant and heroic, but exhausting 
and bloody struggle of four years. Our ports are closed so as 
to exclude the hope of procuring arms and supplies from 
abroad ; and we are unable to arm our people, even if they 
were willing to continue the struggle. The supplies of quarter- 
master and commissary stores in the country are very limited 
in amount, and our railroads are so broken and destroyed as 
to prevent, to a great extent, the transportation and accumula- 
tion of those remaining. Our currency has lost its purchasing 
power, and there is no means of supplying the treasury ; and 
the people are hostile to impressments and endeavor to conceal 
such supplies as are needed for the army from the officers 
charged with their collection. Our armies, in case of a pro- 
longation of the struggle, will continue to melt away as they 
retreat through the country. There is danger, and I think I 
might say certainty, based on the information we have, that 
a portion, and probably all of the States will make separate 
terms with the enemy as they are over-run, with the chance 
that the terms so obtained will be less favorable than those con- 
tained in the agreement under consideration. And the despair 
of our people will prevent a much longer continuance of serious 
resistance, unless they shall be hereafter urged to it by unen- 
durable oppressions. 

The agreement under consideration secures to our people, 
if ratified by both parties, the uninterrupted continuance of the 
existing State governments; the guarantees of their political 
rights and of their rights of person and property, and immunity 



204 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

from future prosecutions and penalties for their participation 
in the existing war, on the condition that we accept the Consti- 
tution and Government of the United States and disband our 
armies by marching the troops to their respective States, and 
depositing their arms in the State arsenals, subject to the future 
control of that Government, but with a verbal understanding 
that they are only to be used for the preservation of peace 
and order in the respective States. It is also to be observed 
that the agreement contains no direct reference to the ques- 
tion of slavery, requires no concessions from us in regard to it, 
and leaves it subject to the Constitution and laws of the United 
States and of the several States just as it was before the war. 

With these facts before us, and under the belief that we can- 
not now reasonably hope for the achievement of our inde- 
pendence, which should be dearer than life if it were attain- 
able, and under the belief that a continuance of the struggle, 
with its sacrifices of life and property, and its accumulation of 
sufferings, without a reasonable prospect of success, would 
be both unwise and criminal, I advise that you assent to the 
agreement as the best you can now do for the people who have 
clothed you with the high trust of your position. 

In advising this course, I do not conceal from myself, nor 
would I withhold from your Excellency, the danger of trust- 
ing the people who drove us to war by their unconstitutional 
and unjust aggressions, and who will now add the conscious- 
ness of power to their love of dominion and greed of gain. 

It is right also for me to say that much as we have been 
exhausted in men and resources, I am of the opinion that if 
our people could be induced to continue the contest with the 
spirit which animated them during the first years of the war, 
our independence might yet be in our reach. But I see no 
reason to hope for that now. 

On the second question, as to the proper mode of executing 
the agreement, I have to say that whatever you may do look- 
ing to the termination of the contest by an amicable arrange- 
ment which may embrace the extinction of the government of 
the Confederate States, must be done without special authority 
to be found in the Constitution. And yet, I am of the opinion, 
that charged as you are with the duty of looking after the 
general welfare of the people, and without time or opportunity, 
under the peculiarity and necessities of the case, to submit the 
whole question to the States for their deliberation and action 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 205 

without danger of losing material advantages provided in 
the agreement; and as I believe that you, representing the 
military power and authority of all the States, can obtain better 
terms for them than it is probable they could obtain each for 
itself; and as it is in your power, if the Federal authorities 
accept this agreement, to terminate the ravages of war sooner 
than it can be done by the several States, while the enemy is 
still unconscious of the full extent of our weakness, you should, 
in case of the acceptance of the terms of this agreement by 
the authorities of the United States, accept them on the part 
of the Confederate States, and take steps for the disbanding of 
the Confederate armies on the terms agreed on. As you have 
no power to change the government of the country, or to trans- 
fer the allegiance of the people, I would advise that you sub- 
mit to the several States, through their governors, the question 
as to whether they will, in the exercise of their own sover- 
eignty, accept, each for itself, the terms proposed. 

To this it may be said, that after the disbanding of our armies 
and the abandonment of the contest by the Confederate Gov- 
ernment, they would have no alternative but to accept the 
terms proposed or an unequal and hopeless war, and it would 
be needless for them to go through the forms and incur the 
trouble and expense of assembling a convention for the pur- 
pose. To such an objection, if urged, it may be answered that 
we entered into the contest to maintain and vindicate the doc- 
trine of States' rights and State sovereignty, and the right of 
self-government, and we can only be faithful to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and true to the principles in support 
of which we have expended so much blood and treasure, by 
the employment of the same agencies to return into the old 
Union which we employed in separating from it and in form- 
ing our present Government; and if this should be an unwel- 
come and enforced action by the States, it will be no more 
so on the part of the States than on the part of the President, 
if he were to undertake to execute the whole agreement, and 
while they would have authority for acting, he would have none. 

This plan would at least conform to the theory of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and would, in future, be an 
additional precedent, to which the friends of States' rights 
could point in opposing the doctrine of the consolidation of 
powers in the central government. And if the future shall 
disclose a disposition (of which I fear the chance is remote) 
on the part of the people of the United States to return to 



206 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the spirit and meaning of the Constitution, then this action 
on the part of the States might prove to be of great value 
to the friends of constitutional liberty and good government. 

In addition to the terms of agreement, an additional pro- 
vision should be asked for, which will probably be allowed 
without objection, stipulating for the withdrawal of the Fed- 
eral forces from the several States of the Confederacy except 
a sufficient number to garrison the permanent fortifications 
and take care of the public property until the States can call 
their conventions and take action on the proposed terms. 

In addition to the necessity for this course, in order to make 
their action as free and voluntary as other circumstances will 
allow, it would aid in softening the bitter memories which 
must necessarily follow such a contest as that in which we 
are engaged. 

Nothing is said in the agreement about the public debt and 
the disposition of our public property beyond the turning over 
of the arms to the State arsenals. 

In the final adjustment we should endeavor to secure pro- 
visions for the auditing of the debt of the Confederacy, and 
for its payment in comm.on with the war debt of the United 
States. 

We may ask this on the ground that we did not seek this 
war, but only sought peaceful separation to secure our people 
and States from the effects of unconstitutional encroachments 
by the other States, and because, on the principles of equity, 
allowing that both parties had acted in good faith, and gone 
to war on a misunderstanding which admitted of no other 
solution, and now agree to a reconciliation, and to a burial 
of the past, it would be unjust to compel our people to assist 
in the payment of the war debt of the United States, and 
for them to refuse to allow such of the revenues as we might 
contribute to be applied to the payment of our creditors. If 
it should be said that this is a liberality never extended by 
the conqueror to the conquered, the answer is that if the object 
of the pacification is to restore the Union in good faith and 
to reconcile the people to each other, to restore confidence 
and faith, and prosperity and homogeneity, then it is of the 
first importance that the terms of reconciliation should be 
based on entire equity, and that no just ground of grief or 
complaint should be left to either party. And both parties, 
looking not only to the present, but to the interests of future 
generations, the amount of monev which would be involved, 



THE SURRENDER OF OUR ARMIES 207 

though large, would be as nothing when compared with a 
reconciliation entirely equitable, which should leave no sting 
to honor, and no sense of wrong to rankle in the memories 
of the people, and lay the foundations for new difficulties and 
for future wars. It is to this feature, it seems to me, the 
greatest attention should be given by both sides. It will be 
of the highest importance to all, for the present as well as the 
future, that the frankness, sincerity and justice of both parties 
shall be as conspicuous in the adjustment of past difficulties, 
as their courage and endurance have been conspicuous during 
the war, if we would make peace on a basis which should be 
satisfactory and might be rendered perpetual. 

In any event provisions should be made which will authorize 
the Confederate authorities to sell the public property remain- 
ing on hand, and to apply the proceeds, as far as they will 
go, to the payment of our public liabilities, or for such other 
dispositions as may be found advisable. 

But if the terms of this agreement should be rejected, or 
so modified by the Government of the United States, as to 
refuse a recognition of the right of local self-government and 
our political rights of persons and property, or so as to refuse 
amnesty for past participation in the war, then it will be our 
duty to continue the struggle as best we can, however unequal 
it may be ; as it would be better and more honorable to waste 
our lives and substance in such a contest than to yield both 
to the mercy of a remorseless conqueror. 

I am, with great respect, your Excellency's obedient servant, 

John H. Reagan, 

Postmaster-General. 



CHAPTER XVI 
The President and Cabinet in Retreat 

At Charlotte, North Carolina, we received the melancholy 
information, through General Johnston, of the assassination 
of President Lincoln. The President and members of the 
Cabinet, with one accord, greatly regretted the occurrence. 
We felt that his death was most unfortunate for the people 
of the Confederacy, because we believed that it would inten- 
sify the feeling of hostility in the Northern States against 
us, and because we believed we could expect better terms 
from Lincoln than from Johnson, who had shown marked 
hostility to us, and was especially unfriendly to President 
Davis. 

While at Charlotte, Attorney-General Davis stated to me 
that his home and valuable city property at Wilmington, 
North Carolina, were in the possession of the Federal 
authorities, and that his children, his wife being dead, were 
with some friends near Charlotte, and without means of sup- 
port, and that this raised the question with him as to whether 
he should go on with us or remain and take care of them, 
and that he wished to confer with me about it. I said to him 
that I did not see what good he could do by going on with 
us, and I did not hesitate to say that he ought to remain 
and take care of his children. He asked me to bring the 
matter to the attention of the President and the Cabinet, 
which I did, and with one accord they said he should remain 
with his children, that he could be of no further service to 
us as Attorney-General. 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 209 

While we were at Charlotte the remnants of Hood's bri- 
gade, under the command of Maj. W. H. Martin of Texas, 
came by, and in conversation with him he told me that at the 
surrender of General Lee a number of blank parole papers 
had fallen into his hands. At my request he gave me some 
of them, and later both Senator Wigfall and Secretary Mal- 
lory used them in passing the Federal lines. Here again we 
witnessed the looting of the commissary and quartermaster 
stores by the citizens. 

Before leaving Richmond Mr. Trenholm, the Secretary of 
the Treasury, became seriously ill. He had been sent to 
Greensboro, and thence to Charlotte, but he had been 
unable to participate in the business of the Cabinet. When 
we left Charlotte he made an effort to travel with us, but 
after some twenty miles found himself unable to go farther, 
and resigned his position as Secretary of the Treasury. 
Thereupon a meeting of the Cabinet was held, in my absence ; 
and after consultation, the President sent for me and 
requested me to accept the appointment as Secretary of the 
Treasury ad interim. I objected, alleging that I thought 
some other person ought to be appointed, that my duties as 
Postmaster-General and as manager of the telegraph would 
require most of my time. To this he rejoined that there 
would not be much for the Secretary of the Treasury to do, 
and that the members of the Cabinet concurred with him in 
the opinion that I should assume the role. On my accepting 
the appointment, Secretary Trenholm turned over to my 
charge the money he had in keeping, consisting of seven or 
eight hundred thousand dollars of what was called our "new 
issue" of treasury notes, and some eighty thousand dollars 
in gold, and silver coin and bullion. There was also under 
our escort the money of the banks of Richmond, the amount 
of which I did not know. 

On our way to Abbeville, South Carolina, President Davis 
and I, traveling in advance of the others, passed a cabin 
on the roadside, where a lady was standing in the door. He 



210 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

turned aside and requested of her a drink of water, which she 
brought. While he was drinking, a little baby hardly old 
enough to walk crawled down the steps. The lady asked 
whether this was not President Davis ; and on his answering 
in the affirmative, she pointed to the little boy and said, "He 
is named for you." Mr. Davis took a gold coin from his 
pocket and asked her to keep it for his namesake. It was a 
foreign piece, and from its size I supposed it to be worth 
three or four dollars. As w^e rode off he told me that that 
was the last coin he had, and that he would not have had it 
but for the fact that he had never seen another like it and 
that he had kept it as a pocket-piece. 

At Broad River, South Carolina, we stopped on its bank 
to enjoy a luncheon we had brought along with us, and to 
take a little rest. While we were there the subject of the 
condition in which the war left us, came up. The property 
of Secretary Benjamin, situated in Louisiana, and that of 
Secretary Breckinridge in Kentucky, was in Federal hands. 
The fine residence of Secretary Mallory at Pensacola, Flor- 
ida, had been burned by the enemy. My residence in Texas 
had been wrecked and partly burned, and my property dis- 
sipa^d except a farm of a few hundred acres and some 
uncultivated land. After we had joked each other about our 
fallen fortunes the President took out his pocket-book and 
showed a few Confederate bills, stating that that constituted 
his wealth. He added that it was a gratification to him that 
no member of his Cabinet had made money out of his 
position. We were all financially wrecked except Secretary 
Trenholm, whose wealth, we thought, might save him. But 
it afterward turned out that he too was bankrupt. 

As I am here writing of the pecuniary condition of the 
President and his Cabinet, I ought to mention that when 
General Grant was moving his forces to turn Vicksburg by 
going down the west side and crossing to the east bank of 
the Mississippi River, I was with the President when an 
officer came to him with the message that in a few days his 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 211 

Briar Field plantation would be in the hands of the Federals, 
and that he had better send and have his negroes and other 
movable property taken to a place of safety. Mr. Davis's 
reply was, "The President of the Confederacy cannot employ 
men to take care of his private property." And again when 
Grant's army had crossed the river and was moving toward 
the city of Jackson I was present when Mr. Davis was urged 
to have his library and other private property removed from 
his hill residence before they fell into the hands of the Fed- 
erals. His answer was as in the first instance. Thus in his 
unselfish and patriotic devotion to the cause so dear to his 
heart he permitted his entire property to be swept away. 

When we reached Abbeville we were there joined by the 
remnants of five brigades of cavalry. The President had a 
conference with their commanders, and sought to learn of 
their condition and spirit. And here again we witnessed the 
raids made on the provisions by the citizens. I was forced 
to the thought that the line between barbarism and civiliza- 
tion is at times very narrow. 

We crossed the Savannah River, very early in the morn- 
ing, en route for Washington, Georgia, and were informed 
that Federal cavalry was at that place. After crossing 
the river we stopped at a farmhouse and got breakfast and 
had our horses fed. ' There Secretary Benjamin, who could 
not comfortably ride horseback, parted from us. With a 
traveling companion he set out in a wheeled carriage. He 
told me that only the President and his Cabinet knew his 
purpose, and that he did not want it made public. I inquired 
of him where he was going. "To the farthest place from the 
United States," he announced with emphasis, "if it takes me 
to the middle of China." He had his trunk in the carriage 
with his initials, J. P. B., plainly marked on it. I inquired 
whether that might not betray him. "No," he replied, "there 
is a Frenchman traveling in the Southern States who has the 
same initials, and I can speak broken English like a French- 
nian." He made his way to London, England. 



212 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

We found no Federal cavalry at Washington, where we 
remained a few days. Before reaching that place, General 
Breckinridge and myself, recognizing the importance of pre- 
venting the capture of the President, proposed to him that 
he put on soldier's clothes, a wool hat and brogan shoes, and 
take one man with him and go to the coast of Florida, ship 
to Cuba, and thence by an English vessel to the mouth of the 
Rio Grande. We proposed to take what troops we still had, 
to go west, crossing the Chattahoochee between Chattanooga 
and Atlanta, and the Mississippi River, and to meet him in 
Texas. His reply to our suggestion was, "I shall not leave 
Confederate soil while a Confederate regiment is on it." 

I might have known his attitude in such a matter, for we 
had discussed the subject of the Hungarian struggle for lib- 
erty and of General Kossuth's visit to the United States, and 
the resolutions by Congress complimentary to him. The 
President had said to me, ''You may remember that I voted 
against them." I replied that Judge Scurry, the Representa- 
tive of the district in which I lived, had also voted against 
them, and that I had written him a letter complimenting him 
on his vote. Mr. Davis added, 'T voted against those reso- 
lutions because I did not believe a brave man or patriot would 
have abandoned his country with an army of 30,000 men 
in the field." 

I ought to say here that it was now our hope to reach 
General Kirby Smith before his command was surrendered, 
and that with his troops and such others as we could take 
with us and those General Hampton hoped to get across 
the Mississippi, we might have about 60,000 men, and could 
move out on the plains where we could not be flanked by 
railroads or rivers, and hold out until we could get better 
terms than unconditional surrender. 

After some delay at Washington, we induced Mr. Davis 
to start on south with an escort of ten men, his staff officers 
and secretary, and to leave General Breckinridge to wind up 
the business of the War Department, and me to close the 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 213 

business of the Post Office Department and the Treasury, 
and to turn over to their agent the money of the Richmond 
banks. We were then to go on and overtake him. He left 
Washington in the morning. By midnight we had finished 
our business and I had deHvered the money of the banks to 
their agent. A Httle later General Breckinridge came to me 
and told me he did not wish to be considered as vacillating, 
but that he had determined to adopt the course we suggested 
to the President — to take the troops and get across the Mis- 
sissippi. "General, you cannot do that now," I said. "Since 
we submitted that plan I have gone among the soldiers at 
night in citizen's clothes and heard their talk. They are say- 
ing the war is over and that they are going home." I added, 
"I think you will find that you can take only such men as are 
personally attached to you." He thought he could get them 
all to go with him. It was then agreed that I should leave 
that night and overtake the President as soon as possible; 
and General Breckinridge insisted that I should have an 
escort. I demurred, but he prevailed, sending me an escort 
of twelve men. 

The escort was instructed to go with me until we overtook 
the President, and then to turn their course to the northwest 
and meet the command which would be with Breckinridge. 
We rode ahead a few hours until we reached a small creek, 
and while our horses were drinking I told the men that we 
should have to ride hard to come up with the President; 
that by that time their horses would be tired ; that in turning 
to the northwest they might fail to meet the Secretary of 
War, thereby endangering their safety, and that I was safer 
without an escort than with one not strong enough to fight 
its way. So I advised them to return to Washington. They 
objected, saying that their orders were to go with me until 
we should meet the President. I replied that I understood 
their orders, but that it was better for them and safer for me 
that they should return. They finally agreed, requesting, 
however, a written statement ; but neither paper, pencil, nor 



214 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

pen was to be had. So I told them to take my compliments 
to the Secretary of War and tell him that I required them 
to return. 

When we left Abbeville, the President and his Cabinet and 
the members of his staff went in advance of the cavalry. The 
money of the Confederacy and of the banks of Richmond 
was carried under their escort, the Secretary of War remain- 
ing with them. After they crossed the Savannah River and 
camped, before reaching Washington, the cavalry, knowing 
that they were guarding money, demanded a portion of it. 
There was understood to be about $25,000 in silver, about 
$36,000 in silver bullion, besides about $700,000 in Confed- 
erate notes and a small amount of gold. The Secretary of 
War told me that after he reached Washington the cavalry 
demanded that the silver and gold coin, equal to the amount 
of the silver bullion, should be divided among them, and 
that he and the officers commanding them found it necessary 
to yield or to risk their forcibly seizing it. He also told me, 
and I learned this from others also, that this money was 
divided among them, each one getting a few dollars, I forget 
how many, the officers receiving the same amount as the men. 

On the evening of the day we reached Washington, I 
called on General Toombs and his family. After some con- 
versation he invited me into a separate room, and inquired 
whether I had money. I told him I had enough to take me 
to the west of the Mississippi. He inquired whether I was 
well mounted. I replied that I had one of the best saddle 
horses in the country. He added : "I am at home and can 
command what I want, and if you need anything, I can sup- 
ply you," for which I thanked him. He then asked if 
President Davis had money. My answer was that he had 
not, but that I had enough to take us both beyond the Missis- 
sippi. Then he wanted to know whether Mr. Davis was well 
mounted. I replied that he had his fine bay horse, Kentucky, 
and that General Lee had sent to him at Greensboro, by 
his son Robert, his gray war horse, Traveler, as a present, so 
that he had two first-cla^s horses. 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 215 

After a moment, General Toombs observed, "Mr. Davis 
and I have had a quarrel, but we have none now ; and under 
the terms agreed to between Johnston and Sherman he is 
entitled to go anywhere he pleases between here and the 
Chattahoochee River, and I want you to say to him that my 
men are around me here, and that if he desires it I will call 
them together and see him safely across the Chattahoochee 
River at the risk of my life." I was much impressed with 
so noble a sentiment, because it was so different from the 
conduct of some others who had pretended to be the Presi- 
dent's close friends, and who were then getting away as far 
as they could from him, and were base enough to malign 
him, no doubt with the hope that such abuse would secure 
them the favor of our enemy. 

On my return to the hotel I delivered General Toombs's 
message to the President. Mr. Davis responded warmly, 
"That is like Toombs ; he always was a whole-souled man — 
if it were necessary, I should not hesitate to accept his offer." 
This was the interchange of feeling of two noble patriots in 
the hour of misfortune. 

Perhaps in this connection I ought to explain General 
Toombs's reference to a quarrel between them. He had been 
appointed Secretary of State by Mr. Davis. He preferred, 
however, giving up that position and entering the military 
service; and was appointed a brigadier-general by the 
President. He afterward sought promotion to the rank of 
major-general. I had gone twice to Mr. Davis to urge his 
promotion; but the President, while speaking kindly of 
General Toombs, said he had in no case made a promotion 
against the objection of superior officers; adding that both 
General Lee and General Magruder objected to his 
advancement. 

When General Toombs spoke of the quarrel I felt a 
strong desire to disclose to him why he had not been pro- 
moted, but hesitated to do so because this would have been 
to transfer the quarrel from Mr. Davis to Generals Lee and 



216 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Magruder. I saw General Toombs twice afterward, and 
both times I felt a wish to disabuse his mind as to the Presi- 
dent, and now regret that I did not do so. 

Before the President left Washington, upon consultation 
with the Cabinet, it was determined that I should turn over 
the remaining part of the Confederate gold to a Mr. Semple, 
a bonded officer of the Navy, and his assistant, Mr. Titball, 
who were to conceal it under the false bottom of a carriage 
and to take it to Charleston, Savannah, or to some other 
point on the coast, and ship it to Bermuda, Nassau, or to 
our agent in England, for account of the Confederate 
Government. Before this shipment was made, by an under- 
standing between the President and Cabinet, I directed the 
Treasurer to pay out a portion of the money to a number 
of officers, and possibly to others, which was done.* 

The President, as I learned after coming up with him 
again, expected me to bring along the Confederate paper 
money. But as it was packed in large boxes, and I had no 
means of securing its transportation, I was unwilling that 
it should fall into improper hands, and, after conferring 
with and securing the approval of the Secretary of War, I 
ordered this money brought to my hotel, and, having caused 
a good wood fire to be made in a wide fire-place, directed 
the Acting Treasurer to burn it, which he did under protest. 
The last I saw of the silver bullion, said to amount to about 
$36,000, a Confederate commissary by the name of Moses 
was having it thrown from a wagon into an open warehouse 
on the square in Washington. From the newspaper accounts 
which I saw while in prison, it appeared that the Federal 
authorities got possession of it. 

On my way to overtake the President and his party T 
passed Double Wells, Georgia, in the gray light of the morn- 
ing. I had been told that a regiment of Federal cavalry was 
there, but saw none. After going some distance farther I 



*An account of this is shown on pages 320, 321 of a publication 
entitled The Confederate Soldier in the Civil War. 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 217 

made inquiry at several houses as to whether I could get 
breakfast and feed for my horse; but was told that they 
were unable to comply with my request. Toward ten 
o'clock I learned that there was a widow on ahead who 
would give me breakfast and have my horse fed. When I 
reached the place she kindly consented to supply my need. 
While breakfast was being prepared, she manifested a dis- 
position to learn who I was, and at the table asked me where 
I was from. I told her that I was from Virginia, and that 
I had heard there was a good country for grazing stock in 
southwest Georgia and I thought I would take a look at it. 
I at once discovered that she was a strong Confederate. 
She advised me that there was a regiment of Federal cavalry 
at a town some ten miles farther on, and assisted me in 
making a diagram of the road so that I might pass around 
it. I did not follow the diagram, but rode on through the 
town and saw no cavalry. During the afternoon of that 
day I found Governor Lubbock and Col. William Preston 
Johnston at a shop getting their horses shod. They informed 
me that the President and his party were about half a mile 
away, on another road. 

From that place we moved on south to the Oconee River, 
and encamped on the east bank. During the evening. Colonel 
Johnston and another man, having walked down to the ferry, 
heard some men describing a wagon train which was moving 
across the country, some twenty miles to the left of our 
course, which they spoke of as a quartermaster's or com- 
missary train, and which they understood was to be robbed 
that night by some disbanded soldiers. From the descrip- 
tion, Colonel Johnston knew it to be that of Mrs. Davis, the 
wife of the President. Mr. Davis had not seen her since 
she left Richmond, and had not known where she was for 
some time. When he received this information he ordered 
and mounted his horse, addressing himself to those with 
him, "This move will probably cause me to be captured or 
killed. I do not feel that you are bound to go with me, but 
I must protect my family." 



218 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

The entire company went along. The roads we had to 
travel for the most part were dim and tortuous, and it was 
near morning when we reached Mrs. Davis's camp. A 
Confederate captain from Vicksburg, Mississippi, and a 
Confederate lieutenant from Texas were acting as an escort 
for her and family. We met two or three men in the road 
near the camp, who were interrogated by the President; 
from others at the camp we learned that some persons had 
been seen around the camp during the night; but nothing 
alarming had been attempted. 

That day we crossed the Oconee River, and after a short 
drive camped for the night. Feeling that the danger to his 
family had passed, the next morning Mr. Davis and I, and 
the members of his staff and his secretary, left Mrs. Davis 
and did not expect to see her again soon. But it rained a 
good deal during the day, and we lost our way, and an hour 
or so before night we met Mrs. Davis's company at a fork 
of the road, near the Ocmulgee River. She had gone 
directly through, while we had lost our way; hence the 
meeting. 

We knew that there were three thousand Federal cavalry 
at Hawkinsville, twenty-five miles above where we were to 
cross the Ocmulgee, and as we had to cross at a ferry — the 
river not being fordable — we expected that if this cavalry 
knew of our movements we should have trouble at the river. 
We crossed, however, without interruption, and camped at 
an old village called Abbeville. The next day we traveled 
in company with Mrs. Davis about twenty-eight miles, and 
camped near a small creek in the level pine woods, a mile 
or two from Irwinsville. The President notified us to be 
ready to move on that night, the family to be left behind. 
Information in some way subsequently got to us that some 
traitor had gone from Abbeville and reported our being 
there to the military at Hawkinsville. The day we reached 
our camp near Irwinsville, Colonel Pritchard, with a regi- 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 219 

ment of cavalry, passed along a road which paralleled the 
one we were on, to the left of us, and got into Irwinsville 
in advance of us. 

For some reason the President did not call for us that 
night, though we sat up until pretty late. Under cover of 
the darkness, Colonel Pritchard moved to where we were, 
and posted one battalion in front of us, and another across 
the creek in our rear. About dawn, an Iowa battalion, in 
pursuit of us, came in sight of the Federals in our rear, and 
each took the other, in the dimness of the morning, for Con- 
federates. Both battalions were armed with repeating rifles, 
and a rapid fusillade occurred between them. One or two 
were killed and a few wounded. When this firing occurred 
the troops in our front galloped upon us. The major of the 
regiment reached the place where I and the members of the 
President's staff were camped, about one hundred yards 
from where the President and his family had their tents. 
When he approached me I was watching a struggle between 
two Federal soldiers and Governor Lubbock. They were 
trying to get his horse and saddle bags away from him and 
he was holding on to them and refusing to give them up; 
they threatened to shoot him if he did not, and he replied 
(he was not as good a Presbyterian then as he is now) that 
they might shoot and be damned, but that they should not 
rob him while he was alive and looking on, 

I had my revolver cocked and in my hand, waiting to see 
if the shooting was to begin. Just at this juncture the major 
rode up, the men contending with Lubbock disappeared, and 
the major asked if I had any arms. I drew my revolver 
from under the skirt of my coat and said to him, "I have 
this." He observed that he supposed I had better give it 
to him. I knew that they were too many for us and sur- 
rendered my pistol. I asked him then if he had not better 
stop the firing across the creek. He inquired whether it was 
not our men. I told him that it could not be ; that I did not 
know of an armed Confederate within a hundred miles of us 



220 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

except our little escort of half a dozen men, and that they 
were not then with us. We learned afterward that they, 
or the most of them, had been captured at Irwinsville. The 
major rode across the creek and put an end to the skirmish. 

When the firing began, President Davis afterward told 
me, he supposed it to be the work of the men who were lo 
rob Mrs. Davis's train. So he remarked to his wife, "Those 
men have attacked us at last ; I will go out and see if I cannot 
stop the firing; surely I will have some authority with the 
Confederates." Upon going to the tent door, however, lie 
saw the blue-coats, and turned to his wife with the words, 
"The Federal cavalry are upon us." 

He was made a prisoner of war. As one of the means of 
making the Confederate cause odious, the foolish and wicked 
charge was made that he was captured in woman's clothes ; 
and his portrait, showing him in petticoats, was afterward 
placarded generally in show cases and public places in the 
North. He was also pictured as having bags of gold on him 
when captured. This charge of his being arrested in 
woman's clothes is disproven by the circumstances attending 
his capture. The suddenness of the unexpected attack of the 
enemy allowed no time for a change of clothes. I saw him 
a few minutes after his surrender, wearing his accustomed 
suit of Confederate gray, with his boots and hat on, and I 
have elsewhere shown that he had no money. 

After our capture we were taken by the way of Macon, 
Atlanta, and Augusta to Savannah. On the morning of the 
day we arrived at Macon, while I and the President's staff 
were taking an humble breakfast, sitting on the ground, 
Colonel Pritchard came by where we were, and I said to him 
that I understood we were to reach Macon that morning, 
that I had not changed my clothing for some time, and 
requested some clothes which I had in my saddle bags, taken 
from me when we were captured. 

"We have not got your saddle bags," he answered me. 

"I am sorry to hear you say that, Colonel," I retorted; 
"for I know you have them." 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 221 

He asked me how I knew that. 

''Because your officers told me of your examining their 
contents the night after our capture," I answered; "and 
named correctly what was in them." 

With some temper he questioned, "Who told you so?" 

"Your officers." 

"What officers?" 

"Since you question the fact," I said, "I will not put them 
in your power by giving their names." Then I added, "It 
does not look well for a colonel of cavalry in the United 
States Army to steal clothes." 

"Sir," he said, "I will put you in irons." 

"You have the power to do so," I replied, "but it will not 
make you a gentleman or a man of truth." 

He walked off as if intending to execute his threat, but I 
heard no more of it. 

When we reached Macon, we were taken to the head- 
quarters of General Wilson, which was a large building that 
had been used as a hotel. General Wilson invited President 
Davis, his staff, and myself to dine with him, treating us 
with courtesy. After dinner I learned that orders had been 
received to send to Washington President Davis and Senator 
Clay, who had voluntarily surrendered after President 
Johnson's proclamation implicating him in the assassination 
of President Lincoln ; and that I and the others with us were 
to remain at Macon. I called on General Wilson and 
inquired as to the correctness of this report, and received an 
affirmative answer. I thereupon observed that President 
Davis was much worn down, and that, as I was the only 
member of his political family with him, I might be of some 
service to him, and requested to have the order so changed 
as to send me on with him. He asked me if I was aware 
that this might involve me in danger. I told him I h:id 
considered that; that we had entered the contest together, 
and that I was willing to end it with him, whatever that end 
might be. He observed that mine was a queer request, but 



222 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

that he would ask that it be granted. In two or three hours 
he notified us that the first order had been changed, and that 
all of us would be sent to Hampton Roads. At Augusta we 
were joined by Vice-President Stephens and General 
Wheeler, who had also been arrested. At Savannah we were 
all placed on a sternwheel steamer for the trip to Hampton 
Roads. 

Shortly after reaching there, Vice-President Stephens and 
I received notice that we were to go to Fort Warren, i'l 
Boston harbor. We were placed on the man-of-war 
Tuscarora, the commander of which treated us as if we had 
been invited guests. Our ship reached Fort Warren early 
one forenoon, and we were taken separately into the fort 
and placed in what was called the lower tier of officers' 
quarters, though no officers had occupied the rooms assigned 
to us. The overhead ceiling of my room was about on a 
level with the parade grounds ; and the light and air we got 
came down between the wall of the building and the wall 
of the parade ground, about six feet from the house. Two 
windows made secure by cross-bars of iron faced the space 
between these walls. There was no ventilation except 
through these. The walls and floor of these rooms were of 
stone, and there was a thick mass of stone masonry, cement, 
and earth above them ; so that the places we occupied were 
damp and more like caves than rooms. 

I was taken to my room about ten o'clock in the morning 
by an officer of the fort, and was told that I must give him 
what weapons of offense or defense, and what money I had. 
I turned over to him about two thousand dollars in gold, 
remarking that as I had only a pocket knife and was a great 
whittler that I presumed I might be allowed to keep my 
knife for company. He said he feared not. I added that I 
had taken a pretty good survey of the situation as I came in, 
and saw that I passed through two heavy barred and bolted 
gates, that there appeared to be a strong garrison in the fort, 
that the fort was about four miles from land, and that I did 



THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET IN RETREAT 223 

not think I would attack the garrison with my little congress 
knife. This brought him to a laugh, and I was allowed to 
keep it. Subsequently this officer brought a sergeant into my 
room and gave him his instructions, no doubt for my observ- 
ance, that he was to make fires, bring water, and attend 
to such matters as were necessary about my room, but that 
he was not to ask or answer questions about anything else; 
at the same time he informed me that my rations would be 
so many ounces of bread and so many ounces of meat a day. 
I inquired why he made that statement. He said he was 
instructed to do so by the commander of the post. I asked 
him if this meant that I was to have no vegetables, or milk 
or coffee ; and he replied that he supposed it did. 

About two or three o'clock this sergeant came into my 
room with a tin plate and a piece of dark-looking bread and 
a darker looking piece of meat, and, placing them on a little 
pine table, said, "Here is your day's rations." I was reading 
a newspaper and made no response, for I had made up my 
mind that nothing should cause me to complain. I let it set 
there. And about the same time the next day the sergeant 
brought and set on the little table another plate just like the 
first. I took no notice of it and let it set there also. I did 
not intend to starve myself to death, but I intended to see 
how long I could live without eating; for I felt that the 
purpose of it was to insult me. On the next morning the 
officer inquired whether I was sick. I told him I was well, 
and said, "You have my money, can I not buy something fit 
to eat?" He replied that he supposed not; but added that he 
would see the post commander. He returned in an hour or 
so with the message that I could order my meals by the 
sergeant from the post quartermaster, who furnished meals 
to the officers, and that every Saturday I could draw on the 
commissary of prisoners, who had my money, to pay for 
my week's board. He told me I could order any neces- 
saries, but no luxuries. I asked him to explain what were 



224 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

necessaries so that I might conform to the order. After 
proceeding a Httle, I told him he might stop, as I did not 
want luxuries. 

On account of the feeble condition of Vice-President 
Stephens, I inquired of the officer whether he was in a room 
like mine, for I feared if he were he could not live long. 
The officer shook his head, remarking that he was not per- 
mitted to answer questions. Vice-President Stephens and 
I were allowed to walk out on the walls of the fort accompa- 
nied by an officer, for half an hour each day, when the 
weather was good, but never together, and we were not 
permitted to communicate with others. In taking my walk 
I passed by the window of Mr. Stephens's room, and from 
hearing me talk with the officer he learned about the time 
of day I went out, and placing himself at the window of his 
room, he hailed me as I went by. I made inquiry as to his 
health, and after a few words passed on. A First Lieutenant 
Woodman was my escort. He seemed to be looking som.c- 
where else and took no notice of our greeting. Every day 
after that, Mr. Stephens would draw himself up to the 
window to let me know that he was still alive. He was 
so frail that he was soon afterward removed to a dry, well- 
ventilated room. He could not have lived much longer 
where he was. Lieutenant Woodman took no notice of our 
hasty talks as I passed him, and in other ways showed that 
he was a very humane man. 

At the end of three months President Johnson sent a 
telegram authorizing Mr. Stephens and me to have our meals 
together, and giving us the liberty of the post between 
reveille and retreat, when there were no visitors on the 
island. 



CHAPTER XVII 
Looking to the Future 

On the 28th of May, while in soHtary confinement at 
Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, with no opportunity of con- 
sulting any one, and without being able to refer to books or 
papers, as there was only a Bible in my cell, I addressed a 
long letter to President Andrew Johnson on a subject of 
great public importance. The war was ended, so far as armed 
resistance by the Confederacy was concerned ; the worn and 
wounded soldiers of the gray had returned to their homes, 
having accepted the final decision of arms, and were making 
the best of the hard conditions which met them on every 
hand. There were, however, a few hundred civil and 
military officers locked in the prisons of the North and 
threatened with prosecutions for high crimes against the 
Government of the United States. It was not because of the 
fact that I was one of those so imprisoned and threatened 
wath punishment that I wrote, but because I was eager to see 
the war end at this point, foreseeing the lamentable possi- 
bilities behind the demand which was being made in the 
North for victims, for confiscation of the properties of those 
of the South engaged in the war, and for the disfranchise- 
ment of the whites with a counter elevation of the slaves to 
all the dignities of citizenship. I greatly feared military 
government and felt that if the President could be brouglit 
to realize the situation it was in his power to save us from 
these evils which seemed to me dismally foreboding. 

I traced briefly the historical development of the vital 
issues which were at the bottom of the struggle, proving, in 
my own mind, that those of the South engaged in the war 



226 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

were not rebels, nor traitors, but men fighting for the Con- 
stitution made by our Revolutionary forefathers. And was 
this a crime ? I held that for only two reasons could punish- 
ments be inflicted. The first, to confine or put out of the 
way a person or persons supposed to be dangerous to the 
welfare of the country; the second, to exert a restraining 
influence on the conduct of others. Neither of these con- 
ditions, I maintained, was present ; the existing state of the 
late Confederacy was such as to render all of these pre- 
cautions unnecessary and unwise, not to say harsh and 
despotic. My plan, it happened, was followed in part by the 
Government, though oppressive and cruel persecutions, 
imprisonments and military governments came in due season 
with their trains of crime.* 

On the nth of August, 1865, while still in prison, I wrote 
what is known as my Fort Warren letter, addressed to the 
people of Texas, and sent it with the assistance of the United 
States military authorities to the Hon. A. J, Hamilton, then 
Governor of Texas by military appointment, requesting that 
it be given to the public. Having been a member of Con- 
gress during the four years preceding the war, and connected 
with the administration of the Confederate Government 
during the war, and knowing something of the conditions 
which would be insisted on for the restoration of the 
Southern States to the Union, and remembering at the same 
time the hostile policy which had driven the South to seces- 
sion, and the great sacrifices of the brave men and of the 
enormous property interests of the South, and knowing 
the profound conviction of the Southern people of the wrong 
which had been done them, and how difficult it was under 
such conditions for people to control their resentment, and 
to consider questions of making concessions as conditions 
of peace, and as it had been my fortune to have to combat 
strong prejudices on the part of the public in more than one 



*For those who may be interested in it, I give my letter in full. 
Appendix B. 



LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 227 

instance in the past, which met their subsequent approval — 
I determined to point out to our people at home the demands 
which I knew would be made of them, as a condition to the 
rehabilitation of the Southern States, and to advise them to 
make such concessions as we would inevitably be required 
to make, as the only means of avoiding the establishment of 
military government in the South and to save us from uni- 
versal negro suffrage. 

This letter met the approval of many of the ablest men in 
both the North and the South; Senator Henry Wilson of 
Massachusetts, who had been the chairman of the military 
committee of the Senate during the war, told me he had 
read my letter to the people of Texas, and authorized me on 
my return home to say to the people that if they would 
adopt the policies suggested in it, he would advocate 
it in the Senate, and would add to it that no one 
should be punished for his participation in the war. The 
Hon. Charles O'Connor, the great lawyer of New York, said 
to me, "You know I do not believe negroes should become 
citizens or be permitted to vote, but if you people do not 
give them the protection of the law and a qualified right to 
vote, military government and universal negro suffrage will 
be forced on you." President Johnson, Secretary of State 
Seward, and Attorney-General Speed all expressed their 
strong approval of my letter, and urged me on my return to 
Texas to get that State to lead off in that line of policy, as 
the only means of avoiding military governments, which 
they declared would be abnormal, and would endanger civil 
liberty. North as well as South. General Hampton of South 
Carolina, and many other distinguished men, in both 
sections, expressed their approval of my letter. 

On my return home I found that the people misunderstood 
the spirit and purpose of my letter, and that they were not 
in condition to reason on the subject, and I had to abandon 
the idea of trying to induce them to make such concessions 



228 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

as it was practically certain would have saved them from 
both military government and universal negro suffrage.* 

In October Mr. Stephens and I were liberated from 
prison. The commissary returned to me what remained of 
my money, and we spent two or three days in Boston renew- 
ing our wardrobes. My parole authorized me to return to 
Texas, but required me to report to the commanding officer 
wherever I might be until further orders. I spent a few 
days in New York City, partly on business, but mainly Await- 
ing authority from Washington to enable me to see Secre- 
tary Mallory, who was still in prison at Fort Hamilton. 
This came in due season and I had a very pleasant meeting 
with my old associate. While in New York I called to see 
Charles O'Connor, the great lawyer, who had been engaged 
to defend President Davis, in order to confer with him about 
that defense. It was while I was with him at this time that 
he made reference to what was known as my Fort Warren 
letter, already alluded to. At the same time. Senator Wilson 
of Massachusetts called on me at my hotel, and it was then 
that he used the expressions which I have noted relative to 
the letter. 

When I reached Washington I called on President 
Johnson for the purpose of securing an enlargement of the 
terms of my parole, so as to enable me to look for some boxes 
which I sent from Richmond before its evacuation, contain- 
ing clothing, a number of valuable books and other private 
property ; and also to request the return to me of the printed 
copies of my official reports as Postmaster-General of the 
Confederacy, for copies of the opinions I had given to 
President Davis in writing — all of which were taken from 
me when I was captured, and a number of notes of hand 
which had been given to me for borrowed money, amounting 
to some $4,000. After his observation that many changes 
had taken place since we last met, he told me he would lock 



*This letter is given in Appendix C. 



A 



LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 229 

i 
into the matter of my requests and for me to call the next 
morning and he would give me an answer. 

Among other matters to which I called the President's 
attention, I requested the release of Governor Lubbock of 
Texas, from prison. He observed that there was a charge 
of murder against the Governor. I replied that while I had 
not been able to see or confer with Governor Lubbock, 1 
knew him so well that in his name and behalf, if that was 
the cause for his confinement, I asked for him a trial ; I felt 
sure that he was a man who would not be a party to the 
commission of murder. I understood in the conversation 
that the charge grew out of the hanging of some men in 
the neighborhood of Gainesville, Texas, who were evading 
or resisting the law of conscription, and were understood to 
be disloyal to the Confederacy. A feud had grown up there 
out of which had come some violations of the law. The 
most serious thing was the murder of Col. James Borland, 
a leading citizen of that country, by that disloyal class of 
men. 

The next morning — I had no special appointment with the 
President — the ante-room of his office was full of visiting 
people; and to avoid having to wait for my turn I went 
directly to the Secretary of War, the Hon. Edwin M. 
Stanton. In a short time he came out and invited me into 
his office. As we passed in, to cut short an unpleasant 
mission, I told him I supposed I was not in a position to ask 
favors of the Federal Government, but that my call was to 
request the return to me of the papers above mentioned, and 
to ask for an extension of the terms of my parole, which 
would enable me to look up some boxes containing private 
property ; and another containing my family silver-plate. I 
feared I might be regarded as violating my parole by looking 
up this property. He met me very kindly and told me they 
had the documents and papers I referred to, and that they 
had been labeled and filed in the Department. He sent the 
Assistant Secretary of War for the notes for the money 
loaned and gave them to me. He also said that my reports 



230 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and the opinions I had given the President would be pre- 
served and printed, and that I could get them in that way. 
He observed that two of my papers had been read in the 
Cabinet with especial interest and that they might wish to 
look at them again. On my asking what papers he referred 
to, he said my letter to President Davis about the campaign 
of 1863 and the opinion given him about the negotiations 
between General Sherman and General Johnston. I said to 
him that when he read my letter to the President about the 
campaign of 1863, I did not know but that he might convict 
me of being a general besides all my other offenses. 

He then stated that their Cabinet had been divided in 
opinion as to whether General Grant should be allowed to 
go round Vicksburg by crossing the Mississippi River to the 
east side, and that they had held him back two or three weeks. 
He said that he and President Lincoln were among those 
who doubted the policy of the movement, because they 
expected the Confederate Government to adopt the plan I 
had urged upon the Cabinet. He said, "If your Government 
had accepted the policy recommended by you, the war would 
have lasted much longer." He wrote out himself an exten- 
sion of my parole, authorizing me to go to any State ^r 
place I pleased, but requiring me to report to the command- 
ing officer of the Department where I might be. 

While at Washington, I endeavored to get authority to 
visit President Davis in his prison at Fortress Monroe, but 
this was denied me. On my way south I spent ^me days at 
Richmond, Virginia, with pleasant renewals of acquaintance, 
meeting many of the public men there, and finding them 
divided in opinion as to the policy indicated in my Fort 
Warren letter. 

On my arrival at Richmond, en route to my home in 
Texas, I addressed a letter to Maj. George W. White, who 
had been reared in the town with President Johnson and was 
his friend. He was at this time living with the President, and 
I ought to say that when I was in Washington I had got 
access to the President through him. Before the war he had 



LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 231 

been a citizen of Austin, Texas, where we became acquaint- 
ances and friends. On account of his relations with the 
President and with me, I adopted this method of reaching 
the Executive with the facts and reasons stated in that letter. 
White, when at Austin, was the law partner of Judge 
Oldham. The two prepared Oldham and White's Digest of 
the Laws of Texas. 

The purpose of my letter was to aid in securing the release 
of President Davis from prison. I urged that the welfare 
of the whole country would be subserved by setting him free 
without a trial ; for the South it would be a signal that harsh 
and vindictive measures were to be relaxed; and for the 
North it would indicate that they were willing to let the 
decision of the right of secession rest where it was and not 
try to secure a judicial verdict. To Mr. White I urged that 
the war had passed judgment and that hereafter secession 
would mean rebellion; and that if Mr. Davis was brought 
to trial before a civil court, an impartial jury might render 
a decision against the Government, which would only 
intensify matters. I had felt all along that the Government 
would not venture upon a trial of the merits of the secession 
case — and so it turned out.* 

I met General Pemberton on the train at Greensboro, 
North Carolina, and we were seated together. In conversa- 
tion it turned out that we both were going to Columbia, 
South Carolina, to see Mr. Trenholm, who had been Secre- 
tary of the Treasury of the Confederacy. General Pember- 
ton told me his object was to see whether Mr. Trenholm 
could lend him money to enable him to rent a farm so that 
he might support his wife and children. I asked if he 
understood farming. He said no, that he had no experience 
as a farmer, and added that he had no profession but that 
of an engineer, in which he had no opportunity of engaging. 
I knew how painfully he must feel under such circum- 
stances. Realizing his situation, and feeling deeply for him. 



♦For my letter to Mr. White, see Appendix D. 



232 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

I recurred to what I had heard of his people. I observed 
after a pause that I understood his family in Philadelphia 
were wealthy, and asked if they knew of his condition. He 
said they did not, and that they never should know it from 
him. 

General Pemberton was a native of Pennsylvania and had 
been a major in the Regular Army of the United States 
at the commencement of the war. He believed that the 
people of the South were right in their contention, and 
tendered his services to the Confederacy. I was told by 
President Davis that the mother of General Pemberton, who 
resided in Philadelphia and who was a lady of considerable 
wealth, objected to her son's going to the support of the 
Confederate cause. When he told her that he was a military 
man and liable for duty and that he could not afford to risk 
his life in an unjust cause, he was informed that if he went 
to the Confederacy he would be disinherited. He expressed 
his sorrow at not being able to conform to her wishes, but 
cast his lot with the cause he believed to be right. He was 
made a lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the Regular Army 
of the Confederacy. He was afterward promoted until he 
became lieutenant-general, and was in command at Vicks- 
burg, Mississippi, during the siege and at the surrender of 
that important point. 

Because of that surrender he was severely criticised by 
many, and some persons expressed their doubt of his fidelity 
to the Confederate cause. After his exchange as a prisoner 
of war I was with Mr. Davis when he reported for duty. 
He said to the President that because of his surrender at 
Vicksburg his usefulness in high command was destroyed, 
and he tendered his resignation as a lieutenant-general and 
asked to be assigned to duty in his line rank of lieutenant- 
colonel of artillery. The President, with expressions indi- 
cating his strong and continued confidence in him, accepted 
his resignation and ordered him to service in his line rank. 

In this connection I cannot refrain from relating an 
incident. In 1864 General Butler made an attack on 



LOOKING TO THE FUrURE 233 

Richmond by way of the Williamsburg road with a con- 
siderable force and four batteries of artillery. Hearing 
rapid firing in that direction, Col. William Preston John- 
ston, of the President's staff, and I rode out to where the 
fighting was in progress. The enemy's shells were then 
reaching the suburbs of Richmond. When we got out near 
our fortified line, we saw General Pemberton standing on 
the earthworks where they crossed the Williamsburg road, 
directing the operations of the force defending the city. The 
Federal batteries were not much over a quarter of a mile 
from our line of works, and the bombardment from these 
four batteries was so rapid and furious that it did not seem 
possible that one could live exposed to it without protection. 
We felt surprised at General Pemberton's being so exposed 
to the enemy's fire; and our speculation was that the criti- 
cisms of his surrender at Vicksburg had so wrought on his 
mind that he was seeking death on the battlefield. At that 
time this brave, self-sacrificing and patriotic man was living 
under the censure of many people he had made so great a 
sacrifice to serve, and whom he had indeed served with 
much ability and courage. I feel that this statement is due 
to his memory. President Davis, too, in his masterly work, 
The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, shows 
the great respect and confidence he had for General 
Pemberton. 

From Columbia I went to Augusta, Georgia, in search of 
the boxes I had sent from Richmond, and found that the 
man in whose building they had been stored had turned them 
over to the Federal authorities when the military occupied 
that city. i\mong other things they contained my files of 
letters, and my letter-books, which covered all my corre- 
spondence during the war. I have not been able to recover 
them, though I used my best efforts to that end. They are 
undoubtedly in the possession of the Federal Government; 
this is shown by the fact that some of the things these boxes 
contained are in the War Department. 



234 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

The chest containing my family silver-plate was sent to 
the care of our revenue officer at Columbia, South Carolina, 
before I left Richmond, and was by him sent for safety t j 
Greenville, South Carolina, and left in charge of a hotel 
keeper there. The box and the mahogany chest in it which 
contained my silverware had been broken into and all the 
smaller articles taken out. The others I sent home. 

At Augusta, Georgia, I met Vice-President Stephens. 
While we were prisoners he had read my Fort Warren letter 
and expressed strong approval of it. In going on the train 
together out to his home, I mentioned that I had seen 
nothing from him on that subject. He replied that he was 
being talked of for the Senate of the United States, and that 
he had thought it best for him not to discuss the matter. 
On my way home, at New Orleans, at Galveston, and at 
Houston, nothing was said to me about my Fort Warren 
letter until I met Governor J. W. Henderson. I felt that 
regard for my feelings had prevented the expression of 
their disapproval, and when Governor Henderson inquired 
of me if anything had been said to me about it, I replied in 
the negative. "My friend," he remarked, "you had as well 
understand its meaning, for, so far as I know, every man in 
Texas who expects to be a candidate for anything from 
governor to constable seems to regard it as his duty to 
denounce you morning, noon and night, under the supposi- 
tion that while in prison you weakened in your devotion to 
the South and had come out for negro suffrage." At 
Huntsville, Crockett, and my home, Palestine, when I met 
acquaintances, they expressed themselves as glad to see m.e 
again, but were sorry I had written my Fort Warren letter. 
I saw at once that it was useless for me to think of engaging 
in a canvass in favor of the policy advocated in that letter, 
as I could expect only antagonism from the people. 

My home in Palestine being wrecked, I went with my 
motherless children to my Fort Houston farm to try co 
support them by tilling the soil. I could not practice law, 
for the people were too much impoverished to pay lawyer's 




OS 



LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 235 

fees ; and I employed myself in managing my farm for about 
two years before again engaging in the practice of my pro- 
fession. 

On May 31, 1865, I was married to Miss Molly Ford 
Taylor, daughter of Mr. John F. and Mrs. Rebecca Walker 
Taylor. Five children were born of our marriage, three of 
whom are still living; and their mother has been indeed a 
blessing to me. 

In the summer of 1866 I drove my wagon into town with 
some farm tools for repairs, and saw Gen. John B. Hood 
on the public square. We had been good friends, and I 
wanted to show him the courtesy due to our former rela- 
tions; but felt much embarrassed because I did not have a 
house fit to take him to. But with this feeling of embarrass- 
ment I went to him, expressed my gratification at meeting 
him, and told him I would like to extend to him the hospi- 
tality of my home, if I had a respectable one. "Well," he 
said promptly, "I am going anyhow." He spent several 
days with me, during which time we discussed a number 
of subjects of mutual interest; and among others his last 
campaign in Tennessee, in which he showed to my satis- 
faction that it was the only military move then available, 
but that success was circumvented by high water in the 
Tennessee River, which prevented the crossing of it at 
Gunter's Landing, making it necessary for him to march 
down the river to a bridge at Decatur, some fifty miles. 
This prevented his reaching Nashville before General 
Thomas occupied the city; and because of the failure of a 
part of his army to attack in flank a moving column of 
Federals at Spring Hill, that battle was lost. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Reconstruction and After 

The Federal Government, having been successful in the 
war between the States, was master of the situation; and 
under the laws of war assumed the duty of reorganizing 
the States of the Confederacy. 

After the death of President Lincoln, x\ndrew Johnson, 
the Vice-President, became clothed with the powers and 
charged with the duties of President of the United States ; 
and entered upon the work of maintaining the authority of 
the Government, and of attempting to secure the restoration 
of the States which had seceded to their proper place in the 
Union, with their constitutional rights as States and their 
proper representation in the Federal Government. In this 
he believed he was carrying out the policy contemplated by 
President Lincoln ; and to this end he issued such proclama- 
tions and orders as he believed to be necessary (and within 
the purview of Executive authority) for reconstructing the 
States, providing for the calling of State conventions, the 
election of State officers, of Senators and Representatives 
to Congress, and for the enforcement of the provisions of 
the amendments to the Constitution in relation to the rights 
of the freed people. In these proclamations he declared the 
war at an end, alleging that the people of the Southern 
States had accepted its results. 

This humane policy did not meet the approval of the more 
radical portion of the Republican party, and was not as fully 
conformed to in all respects by the seceded States as he 
expected. More violent measures of reconstruction were 
adopted by the radicals, and the impeachment of the Presi- 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 237 

dent was attempted. The Southern States and people 
became the victims and sufferers from the conflict between 
the poHcy of the President and that of the Congress. 

By reference to my letter to the President* it will be seen 
that the general policy of Reconstruction suggested by it was 
covered by the plan which the President attempted to carry 
into effect. 

At the close of the struggle the people of the South were 
willing to accept the legitimate results of the war, but the 
Federal Government sought more than the rehabilitation of 
the States and their restoration to the Union. The plan of 
Reconstruction adopted by Congress in opposition to the 
policy of the President involved the making of the Southern 
States into military districts; the establishing of military 
governments ; the suspending of the writ of habeas corpus, 
so that the people had no law or lawful protection of life, 
person or property. The Southern people were subject to 
the orders of military commanders ; they were liable to arrest 
at the instigation of military officers without knowing for 
w^hat they were arrested, and with no affidavit, information, 
or indictment charging the commission of a crime, and 
without a lawful warrant; and they were denied the right of 
trial by jury and subject to a drumhead court martial, and to 
punishment, without the possibility of protection against 
oppressive and illegal acts. Added to this was the dis- 
franchisement of most of the white people of the South, 
including all who had acquired by experience some knowl- 
edge and fitness for devising measures for the promotion of 
the public welfare; at the same time the former slaves were 
enfranchised and given all the rights of citizens. 

The controlling purpose of this cruel policy was, in addi- 
tion to the complete subjugation and humiliation of the 
Southern people, to coerce them into the acceptance of the 
policy and political opinions of the Republican party. One 
of the expedients to this end, besides the foregoing, was 

*See Appendix B. 



238 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

to organize what were known as "Loyal Legions," composed 
of negroes, carpetbaggers, scalawags and camp followers — 
a combination of the lowest classes of human beings, in 
which hostility to the whites was encouraged, and cruel 
venality and corruption the chief business of these associa- 
tions. In addition, some officers of the Army and many 
persons connected with the Treasury Department, robbed 
and plundered the white people in the most unscrupulous 
manner. 

Such was the condition of the people who had exhausted 
all their means in carrying on the greatest war of modern 
times ; many thousands of whose bravest and best men had 
fallen in battle or died in the hospitals. Others had returned 
to their wrecked homes, suffering from wounds or diseases, 
to find such members of their families as had survived the 
war, in poverty and distress, all civil government denied 
them, all public enterprises arrested, and all industry para- 
lyzed. During this period of terrible trial, lasting about four 
years, any Southern man who was base enough, or weak 
enough, to turn against his own people and.profess belief in 
the policies of the Republican party was at once received into 
full fellowship in it, and was apt to be honored by appoint- 
ment to some official position. For the honor of human 
nature, be it said, few such were found. 

It is pleasant to turn from the contemplation of this horrid 
and unspeakable picture to consider the progress which has 
been made by the Southern people since the period of Re- 
construction. They have reorganized society, reestablished 
their industries, reconstituted their State governments, paid 
off a large amount of the State and municipal debts created 
by the negro and carpetbag governments during Recon- 
struction, passed and successfully administered good systems 
of laws, giving the fullest protection and security to the live.>. 
persons, property and liberty of the people; and have 
achieved a condition of general prosperity which is a sur- 
prise to themselves and to all others. They have done more 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 239 

and better than this. While accepting in good faith the 
necessary resuks of the war, they have successfully resisted 
all temptation for the sacrifice of their conscientious political 
convictions, and, under the severest test which could have 
been devised, they have given the most conclusive evidence of 
their devotion to the cause of civil liberty, and of their 
capacity for constitutional and local self-government. 

In writing this chapter I have felt that in stating certain 
great historical truths I may, in the minds of some, be 
thought to be calling into view facts calculated to renew the 
prejudices of the war. I hope none will so construe my 
motives. I have by my own course given the best evidence 
I could of my acceptance of the results of the war. And 
more than this, in the recent war with Spain, I gave the two 
sons who were with me, and my only grandson old enough, 
to service in the Army of the United States ; one son was a 
lieutenant in an infantry regiment, the other a lieutenant in 
the volunteer regiment of engineers; and my grandson a 
captain of infantry, who later for two years commanded a 
company of infantry in the Philippine Islands. My youngest 
son is now a lieutenant of cavalry serving in a regiment in 
the Philippines 

But while faithful to my allegiance and to my duty to the 
United States, I intend to be equally faithful to those facts 
of history which show that the late Confederates were not 
rebels nor traitors ; and that in their attempt to withdraw 
from the Union they were guided and animated by the 
purest and most exalted patriotism, and justified in their 
action by the Constitution of the United States. 

During the summer of 1866, on returning to my home at 
Palestine, Texas, I was called on by a committee to deliver an 
address. I inquired what they wanted me to talk about. 
While they hesitated to reply, an old friend, Eli Bailey, 
stepped up and said, "The committee is too modest to tell 
you what they want. It is an explanation of your Fort 
Warren letter." To this I replied, "Then I need not speak; 



240 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the letter explains itself; and if I had to speak for your 
liberty and my life, I would repeat that letter without 
change." 

About this time General Griffin, then in command of what 
was called the Department of Texas, with headquarters at 
Galveston, sent one of his staff officers to inquire whether 
I would accept the appointment as Governor of Texas. The 
officer found me in the field plowing. I asked what I had 
done to cause General Griffin to suppose I could accept such 
a position. He said, "General Griffin thinks you are a con- 
servative man, and that you may aid in the restoration and 
preservation of good order in the State." I told him to take 
my compliments to General Griffin, with my thanks for the 
proposed honor, but that I could never be Governor of Texas 
except as the choice of the people of the State. 

On the 1 2th of September, 1866, I suspended work on my 
farm long enough to write an open letter to Governor 
Throckmorton of Texas, the State legislature being then in 
session, calling attention to the fact that I had written to 
the people of Texas from Fort Warren in 1865, pointing out 
to them in substance that the Federal Government would 
require, as conditions precedent to the rehabilitation of the 
State and the admission of our members to seats in Con- 
gress, that we should give up our claim of the right of a 
State to secede from the Union, recognize the authority of 
the Federal Government, give to the negroes the protection 
of the laws, and at least a qualified right to vote in elections. 
That by acceding to this we might avoid the establishment 
of military government and universal negro suffrage. This 
advice had been accepted only in part, and the refusal to 
adopt the recommendations which I made was giving a 
pretext to the more radical and violent members of Congress 
to adopt still harsher and more cruel measures of Recon- 
struction. As will be seen from the reading of the letter* I 
made an appeal to the Governor and legislature to adopt 

♦Appendix E. 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 241 

measures still possible which would save us from military 
government, universal negro suffrage, and other threatened 
misfortunes. And I said that if they failed to do so, the 
people of the State ought to hold them responsible for the 
calamities which would follow such failure. They refused 
to act, and thus involved the State in all the horrors of 
military government, universal negro suffrage, and the cruel 
measures of Reconstruction. I append this letter as an 
interesting part of the history of those troublous times. We 
can all understand that there is more chance of success in 
appealing to the passions and prejudices of a people who 
have been wronged, than in appealing to their reason and 
requesting them to make concessions necessary to their wel- 
fare. In this case politics worked a great evil — the leaders 
failed to act. 

In the year 1866 I was a member of the State Democratic 
convention which met at Bryan, Texas; and though I was 
almost blind with sore eyes, I was made the chairman of the 
platform committee, and lying on a bed dictated the plat- 
form, which was written out by the Hon. W. M. Walton. 
After that year I was engaged in the active and successful 
practice of law in the State and Federal courts until I 
re-entered the Congress of the United States in 1875. ^^ 
1872 I was chairman of the State Democratic convention 
which met at Corsicana, Texas, which nominated the Hon. 
Roger Q. Mills and the Hon. Asa H. Willie for seats in 
Congress, for the State at large, to which they were elected. 

I was a member of the State convention which formed the 
Constitution adopted in 1876, and was the chairman of the 
judiciary committee. I sought to have inserted a different 
judiciary article from the one adopted, which would have 
enlarged the jurisdiction of the justice and county courts, 
and would have reduced very materially the number of 
county ofiEicers, securing to them at the same time more 
remunerative compensation. My purpose was to secure the 
services of an abler class of officers, and I was disappointed 



242 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

that my plan was not adopted. I also sought to provide for 
longer terms for State and judicial officers, and to give them 
better salaries than are provided for in the Constitution. In 
this, too, I was defeated. 

On the 6th of December, 1875, 1 took my seat as a member 
of the 44th Congress of the United States, with David B. 
Culberson, James W. Throckmorton, Roger O. Mills, John 
Hancock, and Gustave Schleicher as my colleagues. I was 
appointed a member of the Committee on Commerce and on 
Expenditures of the Post Office Department. During this 
session, realizing the necessity of improving the commercial 
facilities of my State, I introduced a number of bills pro- 
viding for the improvement of harbors and rivers; and I 
introduced also several for the defense of the frontier of 
Texas. 

In the consideration by the House of Representatives of 
the bill making an appropriation for the celebration of the 
centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence 
on the 19th of January, 1876, I delivered an address in 
which I made a plea for the reunited country. I urged that 
the centennial year should be made one of general rejoicing 
by restoring to citizenship, with all its rights and privileges, 
those men of the South who still lived under the ban of the 
National Government. I emphasized that it was the time to 
recur to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, 
to assert anew the cardinal doctrines of our political philos- 
ophy ; and that in my vote for the bill I gave a pledge that 
our people desired to be restored to their proper places in the 
Union, to enjoy the blessings common to all, and to share 
in the glories of our common country. 

On March 4, in my speech opposing the passage of a law 
to put into effect the Hawaiian treaty, I showed that its 
effect was to give a bonus of $400,000 to a few sugar 
planters of Hawaii and their associated capitalists in the 
United States, at the expense of the taxpayers of the 
country ; and that the result would be to people those islands 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 243 

with Asiatics instead of Americans. I also suggested that 
this measure would lead to an acquisition of the islands. 
The treaty was a few years later repealed, on the grounds 
I had alleged, that it was a corrupt measure inuring to the 
profit of a few capitalists. 

I also urged the passage of a bill to amend certain sections 
of titles 48 and 52 of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States, concerning commerce and navigation and the regula- 
tion of steam vessels. My bill related to matters of very 
great importance to the inland and ocean commerce and 
navigation of the country; and its passage was urged by 
commercial and shipping interests generally. I devoted 
much labor to its preparation, as is shown by my report and 
speech explaining its provisions. It twice passed the House 
with but few dissenting votes, but was not acted on by the 
Senate. The railroad interests opposed the improvement of 
water routes and mustered sufficient strength to prevent 
action on it. 

On the 8th of May, 1878, I addressed the House of Repre- 
sentatives at great length in favor of the passage of my bill 
"to regulate interstate commerce and to prohibit unjust 
discrimination by common carriers." I laid down the fol- 
lowing principles in support of the bill, submitting a full list 
of legal authorities to sustain these principles : 

1. That railroads receive their franchises from the public for 
the public good as well as for the profit of the stockholders. 

2. That monopolies and perpetuities are contrary to the genius 
of a free people, and cannot be allowed or maintained in this 
country. 

3. That the political authority of this country cannot, either 
in the States or Congress, create a power, whether corporate 
or otherwise, superior to the power and authority of the people 
themselves ; one which may oppress and wrong them without 
lawful remedy and control; for all power is inherent in the 
people and all just and legal government is designed to pro- 
mote the public welfare. 



244 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

4. That railroad corporations are in an important sense public 
corporations, and are always recognized as quasi-public cor- 
porations. 

This is so: 

5. Because they are created by the public political authority 
to promote the public good. 

6. Because, for the purposes of their being, they are clothed 
with the right of eminent domain. And this cannot be con- 
ferred under our constitutional form of government on private 
persons or for private uses. Private property can only be taken 
for public uses and upon just compensation. 

7. Railroad companies and others engaged in the general 
transportation of merchandise are carriers for hire. 

8. They are engaged in a public employment affecting the 
public interest. 

9. Hence they are subject to regulation and control by the 
political authority. 

The Committee on Appropriations of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1876 reported a bill, the effect of which was the 
abolishment of the navy yard at Pensacola, Florida. This 
was the only navy yard on the Gulf of Mexico, and the only 
place at which either vessels of war or commercial vessels 
could be repaired. And in case of war with any maritime 
power, if the Pensacola navy yard should be abolished, 
vessels of the United States in need of repairs would have 
to make a long voyage around the capes of Florida and up 
the Atlantic coast to some place where repairs could be made, 
and, besides the great expense and delay of such a voyage, 
a vessel would be exposed to capture by an enemy's ships. 
And to dismantle that navy yard would have been to expose 
the commerce of the great valley of the Mississippi, Texas, 
and the Northwest to grave danger in time of war, which 
would not be so great if a yard for the repair and construc- 
tion of vessels could be preserved on the Gulf coast. To 
prevent such a mistaken policy as the dismantling of that 
navy yard, I offered and secured the adoption of such 
amendments as preserved it for the future. And to enforce 
this view on the 19th of May, 1876, in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, I delivered a lengthy address.* 

*'See Appendix F. 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 245 

In the election for President in 1876, Rutherford B. 
Hayes was the RepubHcan candidate, and Samuel J. Tilden 
the Democratic. The election was closely contested and the 
result had to be determined by Congress. Its decision, 
reached by a party vote, was that Hayes had received 185 
electoral votes and that Tilden had received 184, giving the 
election to Hayes by a majority of one. In the popular vote 
Tilden received 4,284,757, and Hayes 4,033,950 votes, mak- 
ing Tilden's majority, 250,807. By a partisan investigation 
and decision the four electoral votes of Florida and the 
eight electoral votes of Louisiana, which were really cast for 
Tilden, and the four votes of Oregon, which were believed 
to have been cast for Tilden, were all counted for Hayes, 
and he was made President by the strictly partisan count of 
the Electoral Commission appointed by Congress. 

The committee elected by the House of Representatives 
to investigate the action of what was known as the Return- 
ing Board of Louisiana caused subpoenas duces tecum to be 
issued requiring its members to appear before the committee 
and to produce the returns of the votes and their books 
showing what action they had taken on them. That board 
refused to obey these subpoenas and the committee sought 
to have the House take such steps as would compel its 
members to obey them. This also was prevented by a parti- 
san vote of the House. And on this question I delivered my 
speech of the 19th of January, 1877.* 

The State convention of the Democratic party met at 
Austin, Texas, July, 1878, to nominate candidates for State 
offices. The prominent candidates for the office of governor 
were Ex-Governor J. W. Throckmorton and Acting-Gover- 
nor Richard B. Hubbard. Under the rules of the convention, 
it required the vote of two-thirds of the delegates to make 
a nomination. After balloting a week it was found that 
neither of them could secure the necessary two-thirds. 



*See Appendix G. 



246 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

At a late hour on Sunday night following the week's 
balloting, I was aroused from sleep by a committee having 
among its members Col. W. L. Moody, Capt. E. S. Jemison, 
and Gen. J. B. Robertson ; and was informed by them that ir 
had been agreed that if I would accept the nomination 
for governor, the names of Throckmorton and Hubbard as 
candidates would be withdrawn on Monday morning, and 
that I would be nominated by acclamation. After acknowl- 
edging my high appreciation of the proposed honor, I stated 
to those gentlemen that I had introduced in the House of 
Representatives a bill to regulate commerce between the 
States, and was chairman of the Committee on Commerce, 
which had it in charge, and that I deemed it so important 
to the interests of the whole country that I would rather 
succeed in securing its passage than to have any office in the 
gift of the people; that I did not know who would succeed 
me in advocating the bill ; that, for these reasons, I would 
have to decline the nomination, which would then have been 
equivalent to an election. 

After my service of sixteen years in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, the legislature of Texas, in 1887, honored me by 
choosing me for United States Senator over three other 
distinguished competitors of the same political faith, and 
advocates of the same line of public policy. In the Senate I 
labored for the success of the party, maintaining the prin- 
ciples for which I had stood in the past. 

One of the last measures with which I was concerned was 
the "Force Bill," which involved danger to our political 
system. This was in 1891. The bill under consideration 
was one drawn ostensibly to regulate by Federal authority 
the election of the members of Congress, and the President 
and Vice-President of the United States. I believed this 
measure to be unconstitutional, subversive of the form of the 
Federal Government, and that it endangered popular liberty 
in this country. Senator Evarts of New York had made a 
well-considered speech in favor of the bill, and evidently 



RECONSTRUCTION AND AFTER 247 

expecting that it would become a law made an earnest appeal 
as to the duty of the people to obey the Constitution and 
laws. The next day he was followed by Senator Dixon of 
New Jersey, who also favored the bill. I feared the effect of 
the speech of Senator Evarts, if unanswered, on public 
opinion, and endeavored to have an answer made by Sena- 
tor Gray of Delaware, Senator Morgan of Alabama, or some 
other of our stronger speakers. Those to whom I spoke 
said such a speech could not be replied to without time 
for preparation and consideration. When I could get no one 
else to undertake it I determined to try to answer it myself 
rather than let it go to the public unanswered. And in 
probably twenty minutes after I reached the conclusion I 
began my speech without notes or documents of any kind; 
and under such conditions closed the general debate on this 
great question. The amendments to the bill were subse- 
quently discussed, and it failed to pass the Senate.* 

I have given a partial account of my participation in the 
proceedings of the 35th, 36th, and 44th Congresses, cover- 
ing the years 1857-61 and the years 1875-77; and it was my 
wish to have given a similar account of my participation in 
the proceedings of the House of Representatives during the 
45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, and 49th Congresses, covering the 
years 1877-87 ; and in the debates of the Senate of the United 
States during the 50th and 51st Congresses (1887-91). 
This would have shown my share in the discussion of all the 
great and interesting questions then being considered by 
Congress ; but much to my regret, I cannot do this without 
making this work too voluminous for general circulation. 

I may say, however, that during those years I took my 
full share in the advocacy of economy in the expenditures 
of the Government. I favored a tariff for revenue as against 
a protective tariff ; advocated a bimetallic currency, gold and 
silver, as the standard money of the country; favored the 
preservation of the rights of the States, in opposition to 

*See Appendix I. 



248 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

enactments by Congress in violation thereof, including oppo- 
sition to the enactment by Congress of Federal election laws. 
I was an earnest advocate of the passage of a law by Con- 
gress for the regulation of commerce between the States, 
and for the revision of the Revised Statutes regulating 
internal and ocean navigation ; and I took an active interest 
in securing the necessary appropriations for the improve- 
ment of the rivers and harbors, as a means of promoting 
the interests of commerce. These are some of the many 
important questions which I discussed during the sixteen 
years I was in the two Houses of Congress subsequent to 
the war between the States. During that time I was a 
member of the Commerce Committee of the House, and for 
ten years chairman of it; and was also a member of the 
Commerce Committee of the Senate the four years I served 
in that body. 



CHAPTER XIX 
In Retrospect 

On the 19th of December, 1890, the Constitution of the 
State of Texas was amended so as to enable the legislature to 
create a Railroad Commission ; and an act of the legislature 
of the 3d of April, 1891, created such a commission, with 
power to make, regulate, and maintain freight rates and pas- 
senger fares, requiring all rates to be reasonable and just. In 
June of that year, resigning my seat in the Senate of the 
United States, I became chairman of that Commission, and 
so remained for eleven and a half years, when I voluntarily 
retired to private life. 

By the act of the legislature of the 8th of April, 1893, the 
Commission was authorized to limit and control the future 
issues of stocks and bonds of the railroad companies. 
Under that law the Commission made the valuation of all of 
the railroads of Texas. Since the organization of the Com- 
mission nearly four thousand miles of the railroads of the 
State have been taken out of the courts of bankruptcy, and 
there has been a slow but gradual reduction in freight rates, 
and a steady increase in the net revenues of the railroads. 
These changes are accounted for by the constant growth in 
the business of the roads, and by the adoption and enforce- 
ment of fixed rates of freight which prevent them from 
wasting their revenues by cutting rates, the allowance of 
rebates, etc. The stocks and bonds of railroads thereafter 
issued were made to represent dollars in money and not 
watered or depreciated securities. 

A view of some of the events and changes which have 
taken place during my long life might be of interest and 



250 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

instruction, but I can only touch upon it. In the year of my 
birth, 1818, IlHnois became one of the States of the American 
Union. Before its admission there were but twenty States ; 
now there are forty-six. Then the United States embraced 
only the original thirteen States, and the Louisiana pur- 
chase, and this was all but unknown in extent and 
value. Since then Texas, with her imperial domain and the 
large amount of territory acquired from Mexico, as a result 
of the war, and by purchase have been added to the Union ; 
and Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, and the 
Philippines have been acc|uired. In 1820 the population 
of the United States was but 9,638,453; in 1900 it was 
75,568,686, and to this must be added the population of the 
Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, aggre- 
gating probably 10,000,000 more. What has been said of 
Great Britain may now be said of the United States, that 
the sun never sets on her dominions. 

I am twelve years older than the oldest steam railroad in 
the United States ; and I remember well when there were 
no steamships, no telegraphs, no telephones. Now there are 
railroad, telegraph and telephone lines covering all the States 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and our steamships for war 
and commerce visit all the countries of the world. When I 
came to the Republic of Texas in 1839 it is probable that 
there were not 100,000 white people in the Republic ; and for 
some years, letters of a half ounce passing between Tennessee 
and Texas paid seventy-five cents postage, the inland 
postage of the United States being twenty-five cents, the 
inland postage of Texas the same, and the ship postage from 
New Orleans to Galveston, twenty-five cents. I recall, when 
a youth, hearing the question discussed as to the danger of an 
uprising of the Indians west of the Mississippi and of the 
anticipated massacre of the citizens of the town of" St. Louis, 
as it was then called. And I remember well when San 
Antonio was but a town of probably 3,000 inhabitants. 



IN RETROSPECT 251 

I have lived to see the improvement in mechanic arts 
revolutionize the industrial systems of the country, and the 
increase in the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial 
wealth of the country has reached almost fabulous amounts. 

I enjoyed the friendship of the venerable David G. Burnet, 
the Provisional President of the Republic of Texas; of Gen. 
Sam Houston, the commander of the Texas army at San 
Jacinto, afterward twice President of the Republic of Texas, 
and Governor of the State; of Mirabeau B. Lamar, a dis- 
tinguished soldier in the army of Texas, and afterward 
President of the Republic; of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, the first 
Secretary of War of the Republic, her first Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court, who served the State three terms 
in the Senate of the United States; of Gen. Edward 
Burleson, the Hon. David S. Kaufman, the Hon. Isaac Van 
Zandt, and Gen. J. Pinckney Henderson, each of whom was 
distinguished for his public service to the Republic and 
State. 

It was my fortune, too, to be personally acquainted with 
several of the Presidents of the United States. Among them 
was John Tyler, elected Vice-President in 1840, who 
became President on the death of President William Henry 
Harrison. I served in the Provisional Congress of the Con- 
federate States with President Tyler, and remember him as 
one of the most agreeable men in social life that I have 
known. I enjoyed the friendship of James Buchanan, who 
was President from 1857 to 1861, during which time I was 
a member of the House of Representatives. I was acquainted 
with Andrew Johnson, who became President on the death 
of Abraham Lincoln ; and with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who 
occupied the White House from 1869 to 1877. I was in 
the House during the Administrations of Rutherford B. 
Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, who became 
Chief Executive on the death of President Garfield, Grover 
Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison. I was also acquainted 
with President William McKinley, with whom I served 
several years in the House of Representatives. 



252 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

I also enjoyed the personal friendship, as well as close 
official relations, with Jefferson Davis, the President of the 
Confederate States, and the association and friendship of the 
distinguished men who were members of his Cabinet, and of 
many of the men who distinguished themselves in the legis- 
lative, military, and the naval service of the Confederacy. 

It has been my fortune to know many of the distinguished 
citizens of the United States during the past sixty years, and 
to have formed opinions as to their respective characters and 
abilities. There may have been among them some equal to 
or even superior to President Davis in some one department 
of study or branch of knowledge; but taking into view the 
combined elements of character and ability I regard him as 
the ablest man I have known. There is a maxim that dis- 
tinguished men diminish in greatness as we get closer to 
them. This view did not apply in his case. In all my 
association with him I found him thoughtful, prudent, and 
wise. I never heard him use a thoughtless, vain, or idle 
expression. 

I only mention these associations to indicate the oppor- 
tunities I have had for becoming familiar with matters of 
public and historical importance which have occurred within 
my experience. 

If this great Republic could be administered on the prin- 
ciples upon which it was founded by the fathers, it might 
continue to be an asylum for the most prosperous, the most 
enlightened, and for the freest, the happiest people on earth. 



APPENDIX A 

The Irrepressible Conflict 

Mr. Reagan. — Mr. Chairman, we stand in the presence of 
great events. When Congress assembled some weeks ago, the 
control of the condition of the country was in its hands. I came 
here with a full knowledge of the deep discontent that prevailed 
in a portion of the States, and I felt then satisfied — as all must 
be satisfied now — that they intended to insist unconditionally 
and unalterably upon being secured in their constitutional rights 
in the Union, or on going out of it for the sake of self preserva- 
tion. I came here with the hope that such measures might be 
brought forward by those who had the power to control this 
question, as would assure the people of the South that they 
might expect future security for their rights in the Union. I 
believe that if the Republican members had manifested, at the 
beginning of this session of the Congress, a purpose to respect 
simply the constitutional rights of all the States and of their 
people, all these difficulties might, before this time, have been 
settled. I do not mean to be understood in making that remark 
as indicating that it would have been necessary for them to have 
acceded to any extravagant or unreasonable demands. Such 
demands would not have been made, unless they deem it ex- 
travagant and unreasonable to insist upon plain, specific guar- 
antees of those rights which were assuredly secured to us under 
the present Constitution as it was formed, and which have been 
secured to us by the action of all the departments of the Federal 
Government down to this time. This, I believe, was the condi- 
tion of things when Congress assembled at the beginning of 
this session. In view of the fact that Republican members of 
Congress have held sullenly back, and have neither proposed 
nor accepted any compromise, but have declared that they have 
none to make, four States are now out of the Union ; and others 
are in rapid motion to go out. Unless something can now be 
done to arrest this movement, there will be but few Southern 
States, if any, acknowledging allegiance to the Federal Govern- 
ment on the 4th of March next. 



254 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

This state of things having been produced, what can change 
it ? I cannot say now that it is possible to arrest the movement. 
It is certainly all but impossible now to arrest it. It is my duty 
to speak on this occasion as I would speak in the presence of 
the future — as I would speak in the presence of the calamities 
invoked on this people by the action of this Congress, and by a 
portion of the States of the Union. No men on the face of the 
earth, at any period of the world's history, were ever charged 
with a more solemn responsibility than that which rests to-day 
on the American Congress. It calls not for passion, but for 
calm deliberation ; not for the maintenance of mere partisan 
supremacy, but for the ascendancy of patriotism ; not for the 
domination of one party and the overthrow of the other, but for 
a constitutional Union based on the action of the people, and 
on the support of a Government friendly to all its parts ; not 
nurturing and fostering the one and hostile to the other, but 
just and fair to all alike. These are the great principles which 
should animate our actions if we intend to preserve the Union. 
On the other hand, if fifteen States come here — minority as they 
may be in Congress, in the popular masses, in wealth and 
power — telling you of their discontents, and the cause of them, 
and if you tender no olive branch, no conciliation, but sternly 
deny them their constitutional rights, and tender to them on 
the one hand submission to ruin, and on the other hand powder 
and ball, who is it that does not know what their decision will 
be, whatever may be the consequences ? 

Is there a cause for this discontent? It has been interroga- 
tively suggested that there was none. It has been partially 
admitted by others that there is some cause. This is not the 
time to come here and suppose that, by special pleading and 
ingenious statements of the cause of controversy, we can change 
the judgment of posterity as to the attitude of public afifairs in 
these times. It is beneath the dignity of the statesman ; it is 
beneath the dignity of the men who control events to resort now 
to special pleading to misrepresent the causes of the grievances 
which now exist. History will tell what those causes are. All 
of you to-day know what they are. For twenty years the anti- 
slavery strength has been growing in the free States of this 
Confederacy. In recent years it has become aggressive. The 
question tendered to the people of the South is well expressed 
in the language of the President elect — that this agitation must 
go on until the northern mind shall rest in the belief that slavery 
is put in a condition of ultimate extinction. That was his 



APPENDIX A 255 

sentiment. That is the sentiment of the great leaders of that 
party. I presume that few members of that party would to-day, 
in their place, deny that such was its purpose. I take it for 
granted that we may act on the presumption that this is its pur- 
pose. What justice is there in that? Let us for one moment 
revert to the history of the Government to know whether it is 
just in it to assume the responsibility of so grave an act. I 
need hardly to say that, at the date of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, each of the thirteen colonies was slaveholding. At 
the date of the formation of the Federal Constitution, twelve 
years after, twelve of the thirteen States of the Union were 
slaveholding States. Is it to be presumed that twelve out of 
thirteen States made a constitution which was intended to 
recognize slaves as freemen and equals ? 

It would be asking too much of human credulity to believe 
such a proposition. If anything were necessary to repel the 
idea, it is supplied by the bare fact that the convention which 
framed this Constitution, and gave it to us as the charter of our 
rights and liberties, provided in it for keeping open the African 
slave-trade for twenty years after the formation of that Consti- 
tution, so that the white race might go on under the authority 
of the Constitution and acquire a large amount of property in 
negro slaves. The interests of a portion of the States were 
found not to require African slavery ; and these States disposed 
of their negroes, not so numerous then, it is true, as they were 
in some of the more Southern States. Then they made their 
States what they called free States. The Southern States raised 
no objection, and had no right to raise any objection, that these 
States had chosen for themselves to exclude negro slavery ; but 
they had rights under the Federal Constitution — the right to 
protection and security — which it was their duty to insist upon. 
That is all they have done. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I cannot dwell longer upon this portion 
of our history ; but I will ask attention to another feature of this 
question. I invoke the attention of the Republicans for a 
moment, to what would be the result of the success of their 
doctrines if they will not cease this agitation until they can rest 
in the belief that negro slavery is put in process of extinction. 
But, before I do it, I wish to make one remark, not altogether 
connected with my argument ; but which may not be unservice- 
able. We have for years back heard of what is termed the irre- 
pressible conflict. It has emanated from men who have been 
eulogized for their statesmanship and their learning. It rested 



256 MEMOIRS BY JOHN II. REAGAN 

on the idea of irrepressible hostility between the interests and 
institutions of the States of the Union. It has been invoked 
for partisan success and for sectional prejudice. It has culmin- 
ated too soon for its authors. And, here to-day, behold the 
fruits of the irrepressible conflict. Every man who looks for- 
ward with an eye to the interests and hopes of the country has 
foreseen what the irrepressible conflict meant — that it meant 
subjugation and humiliation to the South, or the dissolution of 
the Union. You have reached now its logical end. Are you, 
then, longer prepared to eulogize a doctrine and eulogize its 
authors which have brought upon us so precipitately such fruits 
as these? 

But to the point to which I was calling attention. I ask 
Republicans to-day — and I would to God I could throw my 
voice to every city and town and village and hamlet in the whole 
North, and could be heard by every citizen there, and answered 
by all — to trace the history of the African race through all the 
centuries of the past, in every country and every clime, from 
their native barbarism in Africa to slavery in Brazil and the 
West Indies, and everywhere else that you find them, and then 
come to the Southern States, and compare the condition of the 
negroes there with their condition anywhere else, and answer 
me if they are not in the enjoyment of more peace, more bless- 
ings, and everything that gives contentment and happiness, than 
any other portion of that race, bond or free, at any other age, 
or in any portion of the world? Will any man deny that they 
are? And if they are, is it the part of philanthropy to turn them 
back to the condition of the rest of their race, and, in doing so, 
destroy the hopes and the social and political future of fifteen 
States of this Confederacy? Then, again, I would ask this 
other question. Suppose these slaves were liberated ; suppose 
the people of the South would to-day voluntarily consent to 
surrender $3,000,000,000 of slave property, and send the slaves 
at their own expense into the free States ; would you accept 
them as freemen and citizens in your States? [No! No! from 
the Republican side of the House.] You dare not answer me 
that you would. You would fight us with all the energy and 
power of your States for twenty years, before you would submit 
to it. And yet you demand of us to liberate them, to surrender 
this $3,000,000,000 of slave property, to dissolve society, to 
break up social order, to ruin our commercial and political 
prospects for the future, and still to retain such an element 
among us. 



APPENDIX A 257 

Again, I ask you, do you believe, one of you — does any 
Republican in this Union believe to-day that if he could pur- 
chase a separate Territory, occupied by no human being, if you 
could liberate all the slaves to-day, take them to the Territory, 
frame a government for them, and give them money to start it — 
do you believe that, for one year, or any future period, those 
negroes could maintain a government in peace, giving security 
to life and person, and prosperity and repose to society? I 
venture to say there is not a Republican in this Union who 
could hazard his reputation by answering that question in the 
affirmative. And, yet, in religion's name, in God's name, in the 
name of justice and humanity, you are invoking every feeling 
that can stir the hearts of the people to press on with your 
irrepressible conflict ; never halting, never stopping to consider, 
as all statesmen must consider, the relative condition and 
capacities of the races ; and what is to be the end of the conflict 
which you invoke, with the certainty on your part that it must 
result in breaking up this Republic or in the subjugation and 
the infliction upon the South of the worst despotism that can be 
forced upon any country. I address you with all the earnest- 
ness of my nature ; I address you in the name of humanity, in 
the name of our common country and of the cause of civil 
liberty. 

Again : if I wanted experience to prove the truth of my sup- 
position that such would be the calamitous effect of carrying 
your principles to their ultimate results, the history of the past 
furnishes that experience. In 1793, when red republicanism 
assumed its reign in France and the wild delusion of unre- 
strained liberty seized upon the minds of the masses, there were 
wretched fanatics who undertook to proclaim the equality of 
every human being, and they proposed the liberation of the 
slaves in the French West India colonies. The idea chimed 
with the popular delusions of the day, and a decree was passed 
that all the slaves should be free. The colonies would not 
accept the decree, and did not until the army of France was 
brought into requisition, and the slaves were set at liberty. But, 
what was the result to the colonies? Great Britain, catching 
the contagion from France, determined upon the policy of 
liberating her slaves in her West India colonies ; but she was 
a little more humane and liberal. She did make compensation 
to the owners of slaves liberated, to the amount perhaps of one- 
eighth of their value. But what was the fruit of those decrees 
to the colonies interested ? What was the result of conferring 



258 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the boon of freedom upon the African race in these colonies? 
What was the condition of these colonies prior to the execution 
of these decrees ? They were the homes of civilization, content- 
ment, prosperity, and happiness ; their farms were cultivated, 
their cities were alive with business ; their ports were covered 
with the canvas of the fleets of all nations, bearing to and fro 
the commerce of the world. Those decrees were passed. What 
followed? The white race was to a considerable extent exter- 
minated by all the implements and modes of cruelty and tor- 
ture that ingenuity of barbarism could invent. Yes, sir, exter- 
minated. The fields then growing under the hand of industry 
soon went back into jungle, inhabited by the wild beasts of 
the forest; grass grew in the streets of their cities, and ships 
departed from their ports. And they have gone on in this 
experiment of liberty from revolution to revolution, carnage 
succeeding carnage, until at this time some of them have 
relapsed into and present a spectacle of savage African bar- 
barism. Gentlemen of the Republican party, are you now pre- 
pared to go on in your aggressions until you have inaugurated 
the same scenes for your Southern brethren? I say your 
brethren, for hundreds and thousands of them are your com- 
mon kindred, living in the enjoyment of the blessings of the 
same system of government, and enjoying the prosperity com- 
mon to our people. Are you prepared to inaugurate a system 
which can only end in such a result? Are you prepared to 
attempt to force us by fire and sword to submit to such a fate 
as this? 

Your people have lived in the habitual violation of the Con- 
stitution and laws of Congress, for many years, to our serious 
injury, and we have never invoked its doctrine of Federal 
coercion against your States. Your legislatures have passed 
laws nullifying provisions of the Federal Constitution which 
ought to have secured protection to our rights. The members 
of your legislatures had to commit official perjury in voting 
for these laws. And your Governors had to do the same thing 
in signing and approving them. And a number of your States 
have passed laws to fine and imprison their own citizens if 
they should aid in executing the fugitive slave law — a law 
passed in conformity with the requirements of the Federal 
Constitution, and which has been adjudged to be constitutional 
and binding on all by the Supreme Court of the United States. 

During all this time your States have stood in open rebel- 
lion against the Constitution and laws of the country — and this 



APPENDIX A 259 

in carrying- on your aggressive and hostile policy against us — 
we have heard nothing of Federal coercion, not even from our 
Northern friends who are now so ready to turn Federal bay- 
onets against us. But now that the Southern States have 
determined that they can stand these lawless and hostile aggres- 
sions on their rights no longer ; now that they have determined 
not to live under a government hostile to these rights, and 
that their safety and self-preservation require them to resume 
the powers they had delegated to the Federal Government for 
their common good, but which are to be used under Republican 
rule for their ruin, we hear continually from Republicans of 
the treason and rebellion of the South ; and they are loud and 
seemingly sincere in their demands for the enforcement of the 
laws by Federal guns. And I regret to see that Northern 
Democrats, some of them, seem to be equally forgetful of our 
wrongs, and of abolition aggressions on our rights, and equally 
anxious for the gunpowder enforcements of the laws, against 
the authority of State sovereignty in the exercise of their high- 
est and most sacred duties — the protection and defense of the 
rights of their own citizens who can no longer look for security 
or protection under a government to be administered by hostile 
enemies under a violated Constitution. 

But again : I wish to call your attention to another point. 
What is to be the effect upon the material prosperity, not of 
the South alone, but upon the North, upon Great Britain, and 
upon the whole of continental Europe, from the success of your 
policy? Let me ask you to consider — for it would not seem 
that you have contemplated it for yourselves — this fact : Dur- 
ing the last year the foreign exports from the Southern States 
amounted to $250,000,000. Of this amount $200,000,000 con- 
sists in the exportation of the single article of cotton. That 
cotton supplies the material for your Northern manufacturers 
of cotton goods. It employs the millions of capital engaged 
in that business. It employs the time and services of hundreds 
of thousands of operatives who work there. It employs the 
investments made in your Northern cities in the shipping in 
our coast-wise trade and foreign commerce. It employs the 
untold millions of English capital engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton goods. It employs the millions of English capital 
engaged in the transportation of cotton, manufactured and 
unmanufactured. It supplies with bread the hundreds of thou- 
sands of operatives employed in the manufacture of these goods 
in England. 



260 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

Now suppose you succeed in striking down African slavery 
in the United States ; you strike down not only our prosperity 
in the South, and inaugurate instead all the horrors of African- 
ized barbarism under which the French and British West India 
colonies now suffer; you strike down all the investments made 
in the manufacture of cotton goods ; you bankrupt your capi- 
talists ; you beggar your operatives ; you bankrupt Great 
Britain ; you beggar millions there ; you inaugurate starva- 
tion and famine in Great Britain to an extent ten-fold beyond 
that which will be suffered here. You require of us uncon- 
ditional submission; and if that is not rendered, you propose 
to employ all the force of the Army and Navy to subjugate us. 

I was going on to say that you contemplate as a part of the 
means of your operations the blockade of our ports. Well, 
I grant that you have the ships, and you could blockade our 
ports if none but ourselves were concerned. But let me warn 
3^ou in advance, that like a distinguished general of a former 
war, you will find a fire in the rear as well as in the front 
when you undertake to do it. Your own people will not per- 
mit you to do it. Your commercial cities will not permit 
you to do it. Your manufacturers will not permit you to 
do it. But suppose your people should be so demented as 
to allow you to destroy their interests, do you think Great 
Britain would permit it? Will she permit you to bankrupt 
her capitalists engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, 
and in the commerce growing out of cotton, and starve her 
millions of operatives ? If your own interests, and all the duties 
of humanity and justice, will not induce you to forbear from 
the madness and folly which must produce such results. Great 
Britain and continental Europe will promptly require you to 
raise the blockade of our ports. 

Gentlemen, I mention these things, and you can consider 
them if you think they are worth considering. We are dealing 
with questions which involve not only our own interests, but 
the interests of all the civilized and commercial world. 

You are not content with the vast millions of tribute we 
pay you annually under the operation of our revenue laws, 
our navigation laws, your fishing bounties, and by making your 
people our manufacturers, our merchants, our shippers. You 
are not satisfied with the vast tribute we pay you to build 
up your great cities, your railroads, your canals. You are 
not satisfied with the millions of tribute we have been paying 
on account of the balance of exchange which you hold against 



APPENDIX A 261 

US. You are not satisfied that we of the South are almost 
reduced to the condition of overseers for Northern capitalists. 
You are not satisfied with all this ; but you must wage a 
relentless crusade against our rights and institutions. And 
now you tender us the inhuman alternative of unconditional 
submission to Republican rule on abolition principles, and ulti- 
mately to free negro equality and a government of mongrels 
or a war of races on the one hand, and on the other secession 
and a bloody and desolating civil war, waged in an attempt 
by the Federal Government to reduce us to submission to 
these wrongs. It was the misfortune of Mexico and Central 
and South America, that they attempted to establish govern- 
ments of mongrels, to enfranchise Indians and free negroes 
with all the rights of freemen, and invest them, so far as their 
numbers go, with the control of those governments. It was a 
failure there ; it would be a failure here. It has given them an 
uninterrupted reign of revolutions and anarchy there ; it would 
do the same thing here. Our own Government succeeded 
because none but the white race, who were capable of self- 
government, were enfranchised with the rights of freemen. The 
irrepressible conflict propounded by abolitionism has produced 
now its legitimate fruits — disunion. Free negro equality, which 
is its ultimate object, would make us re-enact the scenes of 
revolution and anarchy we have so long witnessed and deplored 
in the American governments to the south of us. 

We do not intend that you shall reduce us to such a con- 
dition. But I can tell you what your folly and injustice will 
compel us to do. It will compel us to be free from your domina- 
tion, and more self-reliant than we have been. It will compel 
us to assert and maintain our separate independence. It will 
compel us to manufacture for ourselves, to build up our own 
commerce, our own great cities, our own railroads and canals ; 
and to use the tribute money we now pay you for these things 
to the support of a government which will be friendly to all 
our interests, hostile to none of them. Let me tell you to 
beware lest your abolitionism and irrepressible-conflict states- 
manship produce these results to us, and calamities to you of 
which you dream not now. 

The question again recurs, what has brought the perilous 
condition of the country? Why, sir, to hear the taunts that 
are made to the South, to hear the epithets of "treason," "rebel- 
lion," "revolt," and to hear the declarations and pretensions 
made in the North, one would think that the people of the 



262 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

South were a reckless, wayward people, seeking only to do 
wrong. How? In what? Let the questions be echoed and 
reechoed all over the Union — all over the civilized world. 
How? In what have the South done wrong? Have they 
sought to violate the Federal Constitution? Have they sought 
to violate the laws? Have they asked you to sacrifice any 
material interest? Have they asked you to sacrifice any prin- 
ciple that is not in conflict with the Federal Constitution and 
laws? I wish this question could go everywhere and sink 
into every heart, and be answered by every human being. How 
have we done wrong? In what way have we done wrong? 
History is to answer the question ; and it is to answer it in the 
face of the consequences which must follow. 

I stand here to-day to say that if there be a Southern State, 
or a Southern man even, who would demand, as a condition 
for remaining in this Union, anything beyond the clearly speci- 
fied guarantees of the Constitution of the United States as 
they are, I do not know it. I can speak for my own State. 
I think I have had intimate association enough with her people 
to declare that they have never dreamed of asking more than 
their constitutional rights. They are, however, unalterably 
determined never to submit to less than their constitutional 
rights. Never ; never ; sir ! You can rely on that, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Chairman, I was going on to say that we demand nothing 
but what are our clear constitutional rights. We will submit, 
sir, to nothing less. We ask no concessions as a mere favor 
to us. We demand our constitutional rights. That, sir, is the 
language of freedom. We demand them and we intend to have 
them, in the Union or out of it. 

I regret that in the course of this discussion an assumption 
is made, and arguments are predicated upon it, that it was 
simply a question whether we have the right to rebel against 
the Federal Government. Those arguments have seemed to 
go upon the hypothesis that we neither knew nor appreciated 
the blessings of this Union ; but, on the contrary, we hated 
and wished to destroy it. And here I must say, that on yes- 
terday I was deeply pained to hear certain arguments advanced 
by the distinguished gentlemen from IlHnois and Ohio (Messrs. 
McClernand and Cox). Their arguments seemed to proceed 
upon the assumption I have stated. I was the more pained, 
sir, because I have seen the gallant battles they have fought 
against abolitionism and the "irrepressible conflict." I know 
their experience, their judgment, and their capacity. I know, 



APPENDIX A 263 

sir, that they are representative men of a great and gallant 
party. I felt profound regret to see such arguments, pro- 
ceeding upon such an assumption, come from those gentlemen. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, if I can I will correct some of the 
errors upon which the arguments advanced against us seem 
predicated. We do rightly estimate the value of the Union. 
We do rightly estimate the value of the blessings of this Gov- 
ernment. We have loved and cherished the Union. Nobody 
has a better right than I have, although I say so myself, to 
make that declaration. I have loved the Union with an almost 
extravagant devotion. I have fought its battles whenever they 
were to be fought in my section of the country. I have met 
every sectional issue, at home in my section, and in my State 
particularly, which was attempted to be forced upon the public 
mind, and which I thought would mar the harmony of the 
Democratic party. I have fought the battles of the Union 
without looking forward to the consequences. I have fought 
them in times when the result for the Union seemed almost 
hopeless. If I could believe we could have security of our 
rights within the Union, I would go home and fight the battle 
of the Union in the future with the same earnestness and energy 
that I have done in time past. 

While those gentlemen tender us war as the alternative, if 
we do not submit, yet, sir, not one word is said in way of 
rebuke to those of the Republican party who have created the 
present storm; no demand is made of the Republican party to 
relinquish their unconstitutional encroachments — to give up 
pretensions inconsistent with our system of government and our 
political rights. There, appeal ought to be made, that our 
rights should be given to us, and that we should be secured 
in the enjoyment of them. Let that be done, and no arm and 
no voice will be raised against the Federal Union. Deny us 
our rights, and we will face your messengers of death, and 
show you how freemen can die, or, living, how they can main- 
tain their rights. Mark that, sir ! 

Where, Mr. Chairman, is now our hope for conciliation? 
Pennsylvania and Vermont have already acted on the propo- 
sition to repeal personal liberty bills ; and they have refused 
to repeal those obnoxious and unconstitutional laws. The gen- 
tleman from Ohio (Mr. Cox) stated yesterday that he thought 
those laws would be repealed in Ohio. 

Mr. Hale. There are no personal liberty laws on the statute- 
book of Pennsylvania. I know the statement has been made, 
but it has been corrected time and again. 



264 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Mr. Reagan. I refer the gentleman to his own statute-book. 

Mr. Morrill. Let me say a word for Vermont. 

Mr. Reagan. I cannot allow myself to be interrupted con- 
stantly. 

Mr. Morrill. I desire to correct a statement that this gen- 
tleman has made. I know that he would not willingly mis- 
represent my State. Vermont, sir, has not refused to repeal 
her personal liberty bills. The matter was referred to a com- 
mission; and when that commission reports, the legislature 
will then, I have no doubt, act on the subject. 

Mr. Reagan. They have not repealed the personal liberty 
bill. That was my statement ; and that statement is not denied. 
I do not believe that they will repeal them in the Northern 
States. It does not lie in the mouths of our Northern friends 
to ask us to believe them until they can promise with certainty 
that these laws will be repealed. We know that delay is death. 
We have already experienced some of the fruits of delays. 

We want to avert civil war if we can. Yet no effort has 
been made to give us what, under the Constitution, we ought 
to have. It is not proposed to give us what will reasonably 
make the Southern people believe that they will have security 
in the Union. No such proposition can be made and sustained ; 
because, to give us our rights is to disband the Republican 
party. The existence of that party depends upon violating 
the Federal Constitution, and in making war upon the insti- 
tutions of the South. There is now an irrepressible conflict; 
and either the Federal Government or the Republican party 
must end. I am not here to palliate or to dodge one of the 
inevitable dangers that beset us. I am ready, for one, to face 
them all ; and I think that this is the better course for us all 
to pursue. When we all do that then we will have a just 
understanding of our relative positions. You all know that 
we cannot and dare not live in this Union with our rights denied 
by the Republican party. Its ascendency is our destruction ; 
and, sir, its destruction this day is the only salvation for the 
Union. 

I will now, for a moment, refer to the arguments of the 
distinguished gentlemen from Illinois and Ohio (Messrs. 
McClernand and Cox). As one member of this House, I want 
to give them an assurance that the anticipations they enter- 
tain, and upon which they base their argument, can never be 
realized. I have been taught, from my earliest instructions, 
in the theory and practice of our Government, that this is a 



APPENDIX A 265 

Government of consent and agreement, as contradistinguished 
from a Government of force or military despotism. It is bound 
to be one or the other. Which is it? Is it a voluntary asso- 
ciation of free, republican States, upon terms of equality, or 
is it a military despotism, in which the Federal arm, through 
its army and navy, can subdue the States at will, and force 
them to submit to any grievance which may emanate from 
the Federal Government or other States? Which of these 
positions do my friends intend to assume ? Assuming the prin-; 
ciple that the Federal Government has the right to bind the 
States in all things, they go upon the hypothesis that their 
interests and positions will require them to command the outlet 
to the Gulf of Mexico and the forts upon the coast of Florida. 
I do not rise for the purpose of denying the right of the pas- 
sage to the Gulf; but I must express my regrets that they 
talk in advance of cleaving their way to the Gulf by armies 
with banners, before one man from all that country has ever 
said that they should have any cause for war. No one has 
ever intended to deprive them of the benefit of the naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi. No one intends it to-day; so that if 
we are trampled upon by force, let me proclaim to them and 
to the country, that they must place their action upon a differ- 
ent ground, because we intend that they shall never have cause 
of war upon that account. 

Mr. McClernand. The gentleman seems to refer to my 
remarks of yesterday. 

Mr. Reagan. The gentleman did not say so yesterday, but 
he did on a former day of the session. 

Mr. McClernand. Never. 

A Voice. It was said by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Vallandingham) . 

Mr. Reagan. All I want to say is this, that our interest is 
peace, and our hopes are for peace. War is in opposition to 
all of our interests and our hopes. We want no war; and 
we intend to give no just cause for war, unless the attempt 
to separate ourselves peaceably from despotism, and to take 
care of our rights under a friendly Government — and they 
would be destroyed under a hostile Government — is a cause for 
war. We declare in advance that we will not interfere with 
your navigation of the Mississippi River. We know that is 
necessary for you; but we cannot, because there may possibly 
be some conflict of interest between us, consent to surrender 



266 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

our liberties rather than assume the responsibiHty of organiz- 
ing a government which will cover the lower part of that river 
and the capes of Florida. 

The gentleman from Illinois made a statement yesterday, 
such as I suppose a gallant and heroic man would make, if 
his proposition was properly predicated. He said they could 
not submit to the control of the mouth of the Mississippi and 
the capes of Florida by us ; that they would rather perish — per- 
ish, he said with emphasis — than submit to any other power 
controlling the Mississippi, and commanding the coast of Flor- 
ida. If such is his jealousy of the commercial rights only 
of his own section; if he feels so keen and sensitive a jealousy, 
what would he think of us, if when our commerce, our homes, 
our property, our social and political possessions, for all time 
to come, are imperiled, we should, like trembling dastards, yield 
our rights? A great heart like his would never expect it; 
would never exact it. We prefer liberty and all its conse- 
quences, to a temporary peace without honor ; and the gen- 
tleman will justify us if, under such circumstances, we tell 
the North, and tell the world that we accept independence, 
with all its consequences, in preference to base submission, 
dishonor, and irretrievable ruin. We shall have no cause of 
war. My section sympathizes with the gentleman from Illinois 
and his friends. They look upon them as defenders of the 
Constitution ; and it has been my pride on many a stump, and 
in many a place, to eulogize by name the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. McClernand) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Cox), with all their associates, for their gallant conduct, their 
moral courage, their heroic bearing in standing up against 
Northern fanaticism, and resisting its onward wave to the 
destruction of the Constitution, the Union, and our rights. 
Now, what will our people say when these speeches are printed 
and sent to them, and they see that these gentlemen are the 
first in this House who say that the assertion of our indepen- 
dence, when we can no longer live in this Government, shall 
invoke the cannon, the rifle, the saber, and all the instruments 
of war? What will they say when they see that these gen- 
tlemen, who have long resisted abolitionism, defied its power, 
and been crushed down by its operations, are the first to sur- 
render at discretion in the face of the abolition enemy ? 

Mr. McClernand. I belong to a particular association — a 
great party — that occupies a distinct ground in this controversy 
upon the slavery question. We have been a Union party — 



APPENDIX A 267 

a constitutional party — organized against the two extreme par- 
ties. We will not succumb to either, but continue to stand by 
the constitutional guarantees, as we have done in the past. 

Mr. Reagan. I would always have expected from the gen- 
tleman such a proposition. I know the gentleman's position 
well ; and what I ask him to consider is, what has brought us 
to our present condition? If our rights had not been denied 
us — if our condition had not been imperiled — no voice would 
have been raised in the South for disunion. Will you compel 
us to submit to abolition behests? Will you demand that we 
shall submit to destruction at their hands? I understand the 
position of those gentlemen ; but I ask them to review their 
words, and determine whether they are prepared to assert to 
the world and to American people, that there is no remedy 
under this form of Government, for the grievances, wrongs, 
and outrages inflicted upon a State ; that we shall, under this 
Government, have no remedy ; and that it is in the discretion 
of the Federal Government to turn against us the cannon and 
the glittering saber. Is such the Government under which we 
live? Is such the Government for which Washington and his 
compatriots battled ? Is such the Government framed by Jeffer- 
son and Madison and their associates? No. It is a Govern- 
ment of consent, a Government of agreement, a voluntary Con- 
federation, in which no power was conferred to use force 
against a State, in order to reduce her to subjection. In the 
convention which framed it a proposition of such a character 
was offered and rejected by the convention ; and by the Con- 
stitution itself, Congress can only exercise the powers specially 
delegated to it. 

I have but one word more to say. I live far to the South. 
We have a long Mexican boundary, and a long Indian frontier, 
infested by hostile savages throughout its whole extent; and 
yet this Government has refused for years to defend us against 
them. We have a long coast, too, open to the approach of a 
naval force, and we know the consequences of our acts, and 
we know what may follow^ an attempt to take care of our- 
selves and our liberty ; but we remember at the same time the 
history of the past. Less than twenty-five years ago Texas 
stood a province of Mexico, with a population of not more 
than thirty thousand, entitled to privileges of Mexican citizens, 
including all ages and sexes. We lived under the Mexican 
Constitution of 1824, which the Texans fought to sustain. 
That Constitution was subverted by a military despot; and 



268 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

our liberties were trampled in the dust. That despot came 
against us with invading armies for our subjection. He 
intended to overawe us by the display of military power, as 
the President and General Scott are now attempting to do 
with the Southern States. The thirty thousand people of Texas 
resisted that power for the sake of liberty and those rights 
to which we were entitled, trusting to the God of battle and 
to the justice of their cause. In that great struggle companies 
and battalions fell to rise no more. They sank nobly for free- 
dom, as freemen will sink again for her cause whenever you 
shall tender to us that alternative. Upon the field of San 
Jacinto they won their liberty by their brave hearts and their 
stalwart arms. They vindicated that liberty for ten or twelve 
years afterwards ; and then as a pledge of their love to this 
Union, and their confidence in its principles, and desire for 
the enjoyment of its prosperity and its happiness, that people 
tendered Texas, a free and voluntary offering, to come in as 
one of the States of the Union, upon terms of equality with 
the other States. 

But we were told yesterday that we sold ourselves. The 
gentleman did not mean exactly what his language would 
imply; but he must see how offensive such remarks must be 
to those who do not appreciate the use he intended to make 
of the argument. Texas cost this Government not one cent. 
She vindicated her liberty by her arms ; and redeemed to civil 
and religious liberty a country as large as the six New Eng- 
land States, and New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, 
and Indiana, all put together. She redeemed it from Catholic 
priest-craft and military despotism, and has covered it over 
with five hundred thousand freemen, a prosperous and happy 
people; and they are prepared to vindicate their liberties when 
they are encroached upon again by a despotism of one or of 
many men. 

It is true that war grew out of the annexation of Texas ; 
and I suppose it is that which the gentleman charges Texas 
with. But this Government knew what it was doing when it 
was acquiring dominion over that country, and adding to the 
United States to aid in building up its commercial, agricul- 
tural, and manufacturing interests. But they also acquired 
New Mexico and Utah, and the great golden State of Cali- 
fornia, by that war, and extended their power and dominion 
to the Pacific Ocean. And that is what the gentleman from 



APPENDIX A 269 

Ohio (Mr. Cox) and the friends of those measures now sneer- 
ingly refer to in their reference to the purchase of Texas. I 
was sorry to hear it. 

Allusion has also been made to the fact that $10,000,000 
was subsequently paid for a portion of the domain of Texas, 
to some of which, it is -said, she had no title. I have no time 
to enter into an argument upon that question. The Federal 
Government took up our quarrel for that boundary. As our 
agent, she obtained the title deed for us. No lawyer will say 
that it lay with her to dispute our title. She then offered us 
$10,000,000 for a part of this land — eighty or a hundred thou- 
sand square miles of it. Texas accepted the offer. Shall the 
representatives of the Federal Government now taunt us with 
the statement that Texas has been bought with a price and 
paid for? Why, this Government only bought a portion of 
Texas. She has that now. It is not in the jurisdiction of 
Texas. This Government proposed the trade. Texas assented 
to it. Was there anything in this to call for contemptuous 
taunts? We made no sale to this Government of what is now 
Texas. But Texas did give to this Government, freely and 
voluntarily, her sovereignty and the dominion of all her vast 
and fertile domain, and ought to be exempt from the con- 
temptuous charge of having been bought. It is wholly untrue, 
and self-respect should prevent the making of such a charge. 

Mr. Chairman, there are other subjects which I had hoped to 
discuss this morning, but I will not trespass on the patience 
of the House by discussing them now. I have to say in the 
end, that yet, almost hopeless as it seems, I would be glad to 
see an effort made toward conciliation. Above all things I 
stand here to invoke members to look upon this question as 
one which involves the interest and destiny of States, to warn 
them that they are making advances against fifteen States, with 
thirteen million people, and with more than two-thirds of the 
exports of the country; against a people who understand all 
these questions, and who are not to be misled or deceived by 
special pleading; a people who never intended or wished to 
raise their voice against the Federal Government, and who 
never would have done so if they had been let alone. Remem- 
ber that we only ask you to let us alone — nothing else. Give 
us security in the Union. Respect our rights in the common 
Territories. So act among yourselves as to let us know that 
we need no longer live under continual fear of the consequences 
of your actions. 



270 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

I must say that the very State from which I come, the very 
district which I represent, has had some painful experience 
during- the last summer, growing out of the doctrines of aboli- 
tionism. We found, for the last two or three years, the mem- 
bers of the Methodist Church North, and others, living in 
Texas, were propagating abolition doctrines there. We warned 
them not to carry on their schemes of producing disaffection 
among our negroes ; but they persisted, and did not cease until 
they had organized a society called the Mystic Red. Under 
its auspices, the night before the last of August election the 
towns were to be burned and the people murdered. There 
now lie in ashes a number of towns and villages in my dis- 
trict. Four of them were county seats, and two of them the 
best towns in the district. The poisonings were only arrested 
by information which came to light before the plan could be 
carried into execution. The citizens were forced to stand 
guard for months, so that no man could have passed through 
the towns between dark and daylight without making himself 
known. A portion of them paid the penalty of their crimes. 
Others were driven out of the country. These things had 
their effect on the public mind. They were the results of aboli- 
tion teaching; a part of the irrepressible conflict; a part of 
the legitimate fruits of Republicanism. 



APPENDIX B 

In Prison, Fort Warren, 

Boston Hardor, May 28, 1865. 
His Excellency, Andrew Johnson, 

President of the United States : 

I know not, sir, whether you will consider me, a prisoner 
in solitary confinement, as offending against propriety by ask- 
ing to tax the time of your Excellency, amidst the great cares 
and labors of your position, by the perusal of this communi- 
cation. I beg of you the favor, if your engagements will per- 
mit, to read it. With what you may chance to know of me 
you will determine the motives which have induced me to risk 
addressing you, and the amount of consideration you should 
give what I say. You may, perhaps, remember me as a native 
of East Tennessee, as a former member of the Congress of 
the United States from Texas, and more recently as the Post- 
master-General of the Confederate States. 

Great questions, which involved some three thousand mil- 
lions of dollars in what was recognized by the Constitution 
and laws of the United States and of fifteen States of the 
Union as property in slaves, questions upon the solution of 
which the traditional social organism and industrial systems 
of fifteen States depended for their preservation or destruc- 
tion, and involving the social and relative positions of two 
races of men, differing in color, in physical conformation, and 
in their intellectual capacities and moral qualities; questions 
relating to the fairness and justice of the collection and dis- 
bursement of the revenues of the Federal Government; and 
questions involving the character and structure of the Gov- 
ernment itself, the solution of which were to determine whether 
the Federal Government was one of delegated and limited 
powers only, and the ^several States sovereign as to all reserved 
rights, or whether it was a paramount controlling sovereignty 
and they subordinate on all questions of conflicting authority — 
were for many years before the war discussed with great earn- 
estness and anxiety throughout the country, in Congress, in 



272 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

State conventions, in State legislatures, in political conven- 
tions and meetings, National, State and local, in the news- 
papers, and in all the modes of public discussion. 

The slavery question was from the first almost purely sec- 
tional. The division of opinions on the other questions, at 
first more National, were at last almost as purely sectional. 
Thus were not only States arrayed against States, but the 
Northern States in one body and the Southern States in another 
body were arrayed against each other. The convictions of 
the people of these great sections were directly antagonistic 
on these momentous questions and were so strong, and the 
interests involved were so great, and the passions which had 
been elicited were so intensified, that reason and conservatism 
gave way before their resistless currents. The members of 
Congress, representing the interests and participating in the 
convictions and prejudices of their respective sections, were 
as far from agreeing as the States and the people. And if 
these questions could have been brought within the jurisdic- 
tion of the courts, as the slavery question was in part, in the 
Dred Scott case, enough of popular sentiment was developed, 
with reference to decisions which were made, to show that 
the parties would not have held themselves bound by the judg- 
ment even of the Supreme Court of the United States. All 
the efforts of the conservative men, of which class I claim 
to have been one, failed to secure an adjustment. There was 
no tribunal having the necessary jurisdiction and authority 
which could be appealed to for the peaceful settlement of the 
great and difficult questions with which our people were con- 
fronted. And the dread appeal was made to arms as the last 
and only means of their solution. A gigantic war of four weary 
years ensued. Armies numbering hundreds of thousands on 
each side were brought into conflict. All the passions were 
aroused which a long and bitter precedent quarrel and a terrible 
and bloody war for independence on the one side, and for 
dominion on the other, could produce. 

The contest has been substantially ended by the success of 
the Federal arms. The armies of the Confederacy have been 
surrendered or dispersed. The President and Vice-President 
and many other officers, civil and military of the Confederacy, 
are captives of war and in Federal prisons. And so are the 
governors and other officers of several of the States. The 
success of the Federal arms places both the questions at issue, 
and the condition of the people of the Southern States within 



APPENDIX B 273 

the power and control of the Government. And a Hne of 
pohcy must be adopted, suited to the changed conditions of the 
country. This change is to affect vitally several millions of 
each of two races of people, and may affect most seriously 
the character and form of the Government of the United States. 
No one will understand better than yourself the great responsi- 
bility which rests on you, as President of the United States, 
in the solution of the great questions growing out of the close 
of the war and the inauguration of the new conditions of things. 

My object is, in this paper, to state the case in general 
terms, without argument as to the past, and to submit a few 
suggestions as to the present and future. I do not forget 
that I am a prisoner in confinement and subject to the power 
of the Government, and that you are President of a great 
and powerful nation, holding my ultimate destiny in your 
hands. But I think I know enough of 3'ou to warrant me in 
the belief that you will hear me as a man, pleading the cause 
of humanity and of our country's future, and consider whether 
what I have to say may not go to show that a humane and 
merciful policy on the part of the Government, in the disposition 
of the great questions under consideration, wall not be more 
wise, more just, and more conducive to the public good, for 
the present and future, than a harsh, relentless, and vindictive 
policy. 

I have submitted the foregoing statement of the course of 
things which led to the war to show that it grew out of causes 
beyond the control of the men of this generation ; and that it 
grew out of great public questions of such magnitude and 
character as have not, perhaps, in the world's history been 
settled without an appeal to arms; and the whole history of 
the times shows that it was not a mere rebellion or revolution 
gotten up by ambitious men to gratify malice, to secure power, 
or to establish a dynasty; that the war was not brought on 
by particular men, but by great causes which involved all 
the people alike, and that it was intended only to separate the 
States concerned from a government supposed to be hostile 
to them, and to establish for them a government friendly to 
their interests. 

The avowed object of the Government and people of the 
United States was to preserve the Union. To this end they 
took the ground that it was necessary to abolish negro slav- 
ery; and it now seems to be regarded, at least by many of 
the newspapers of the North, as equally important to insist 



274 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

on the repudiation of the doctrine of States' Rights and strict 
construction, as understood by a great political party which 
has been in the ascendency in power and controlled the admin- 
istration of the country for much the greater part of its 
existence. 

Will it be wise or just to add to these great changes, and 
to the calamities which have resulted from the war, and to 
those which must follow these changes, executions, exile, 
imprisonments, disfranchisement and the confiscation of the 
property of the defeated party, or of those who were prom- 
inent among them? Would this be restoring the Union? 
Would it be securing the affections and cheerful loyalty of 
those who would be expected to form a part of the Union? 
Has not blood enough flowed? Have not their losses of prop- 
erty been great enough? Has not the loss of their indepen- 
dence, and with it their ideas of the true principles of gov- 
ernment, and of their social and industrial systems, in addi- 
tion to their utter impoverishment by the waste and ravages 
of war, and the loss of so many thousands of their bravest 
and best men, been punishment enough? Is there not misery 
and sorrow enough in the land? Would not new calamities, 
additional suffering and sorrows, impress the living with a 
feeling of hopeless despair of ever securing the friendly and 
paternal care and protection of their government, and cause 
them to feel that they were the objects of hate, persecution 
and wrong? And would any people so feeling be likely to 
become happy and contented, and to make good and faithful 
citizens ? 

On the contrary, suppose the people who have adhered to the 
Union and been victorious in the contest, should consent to 
accept the existing condition of things, as those who opposed 
it are compelled to do, and should say through their govern- 
ment, that this contest which cost us so much blood and treasure 
is over, the Union only awaits the formal acts of the several 
States to be restored ; you have failed to achieve your inde- 
pendence, your social and industrial systems must give way ; 
in this you must suffer much, we too have lost much, but we 
hope to be bettered by a unity of institutions, of sentiment, 
and interests in the future. To this end we propose to start 
together and in fairness and good faith to inaugurate and 
carry out the new order of things. We wish to maintain our 
republican form of government as the best for the prosperity 
of all, and to secure the happiness and contentment of the 



APPENDIX B 275 

country. We know these blessings are only attainable under 
a government which commands the affections and rests on 
the confidence of the people. To this end and for these pur- 
poses, we propose amnesty for the past, the repeal of our con- 
fiscation laws, a burial of the bitter memories of the past, and 
that you shall have the same constitutional and legal protection 
as ourselves. 

In my judgment, if this were done, great as the sacrifice 
involved would be, it would be at once accepted in good faith 
by the whole South, rather than continue a hopeless war or 
be subject to military rule. It is the surest, the quickest, and 
the cheapest way to the permanent pacification of the whole 
country, and to its happiness and prosperity. The adoption 
of this policy could not fail to exalt your name and fame to the 
highest point as a statesman and philanthropist. And I respect- 
fully submit for your consideration whether it is not the only 
mode of attaining these beneficent ends. 

I know that by executions, by exiling, by imprisonment, by 
disfranchising, and by confiscating the property of those who 
sustained the Confederacy, the Government can, by the employ- 
ment of sufficient military force, maintain its authority and 
continue a paralyzing and blighting reign of terror over the 
people of the Southern States, and can execute the most bloody 
and relentless policy. But such a policy would make an impov- 
erished, miserable, and degraded people of them. It would 
deprive the Government of their affections and respect. It 
would prevent domestic trade and intercourse among the sec- 
tions. It would fill the country with banditti and outlaws, 
and keep the people always on the lookout for some foreign 
complications or other occasions for a fresh revolt. The 
national burdens would be greatly increased by the continual 
necessity of a large standing army, while the energies of the 
Southern States would be so paralyzed, and its resources so 
thoroughly dried up, that it would add but little, if any, to 
the national wealth and revenues. And such a policy would 
of necessity require a sort of military government and authority 
wholly incompatible with our system of free republican gov- 
ernment. I earnestly beg your Excellency's attention to this 
view of the subject, and to the reflection that governments 
can no more disregard just and wise principles without sooner 
or later having to atone for the error in suffering and sorrow, 
than physical bodies can disregard the laws of nature and avoid 
the inevitable consequences. 



276 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

The friends of the Union claim to have been animated in 
this struggle by a desire for human progress, for the enlarge- 
ment of the field of freedom and happiness. Would this be 
attained by the enfranchisement of three or four millions of 
blacks, whose capacity for self-government has yet to be tested, 
and by the disfranchisement of double the number of whites, 
who have proven themselves capable of self-government, or by 
the adoption of a policy equivalent to their disfranchisement? 
Would it promote progress, enlarge the field of their happi- 
ness, or redound to the power and glory of the Government, to 
make an Ireland, or a Poland, or a Hungary of the South ? 

The question may be asked, who caused all these misfor- 
tunes? And it may be said that upon the answer to this 
depends the answer to the other, as to whether additional suf- 
fering is to be produced by the infliction of punishments. This 
question is substantially answered by the statement of the 
causes of our trouble in the first part of this paper. But I 
may say in addition, and appeal to your long and distinguished 
participation in the political councils of the country, and also 
to the record of the proceedings and debates of Congress, and 
to the history of the action of the legislatures and of the 
people, of many of the Northern States, for the truth of what 
I say, that the slavery agitation, which was the real cause of 
this war, originated in the North, where slavery did not exist, 
and not with the people of the South. That the people of 
the South were not permitted to live in peace in the Union, 
and were involved in this war by seeking to go out of it as 
a means of avoiding the quarrel. And I appeal to the Con- 
stitution of the United States, the paramount law of the land, 
and the solemn compact of Union between the several States 
to show that slavery was recognized by it, and that no citizen 
or State had a right to assail or to attempt to bring into dis- 
repute any other citizens or States because of the possession 
of slaves by the one or of their existence in the other. That 
to do so was to violate the meaning and intention of this sol- 
emn compact of Union, which must have been binding on 
both sides or neither. I appeal to these facts as to who were 
the first unlawful aggressors ; and I appeal to the history of 
the country to show that, at the date of the Declaration of 
Independence of the United States, in 1776, the thirteen colo- 
nies which united in that declaration were all slave-holding 
colonies ; and that at the date of the formation of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, in 1787, twelve of the then 



APPENDIX B 277 

thirteen States were slave-holding- States; and to the Consti- 
tution again to show that by its provisions it not only recog- 
nized slavery but provided for the continuance of the foreign 
slave trade for twenty years after its adoption. And I here 
present these facts not only to show the wrongfulness of this 
quarrel, and that the people now called rebels did not begin 
and could not stop it, and were therefore not responsible for 
it or for consequences which flowed from it, but also to show 
that those who originated it and are responsible before God 
and the world for its consequences, made themselves so in 
defiance of the Constitution and laws of the land, in defiance 
of the past history of the country, and in disregard of what 
their own fathers had done and practiced and solemnly agreed to. 

This will show to your Excellency and to an impartial world, 
that the people now called rebels, whose weakness rendered 
them almost helpless, have been forced by a hard, unavoid- 
able and inevitable destiny, by the inexorable logic of events, 
which they could not control, into their present position, and 
frees them from moral guilt at least, and gives them rightful 
reason to appeal both to the clemency and to the magnanimity 
of the Government, and to you as its head for generosity and 
for a tender regard for their situation. 

I do not wish to be understood as saying or intimating that 
all those who have sustained the Union were concerned in 
this precedent and unlawful agitation, and are therefore 
responsible for the war. Far from it. I know that thousands 
North and South adhered to the Union, as a paramount good, 
and because they did not believe secession to be a lawful remedy 
for these evils, who had no connection or sympathy with these 
agitators, and no desire to wrong the South. And I recog- 
nize your Excellency to be one of this number. I do not pre- 
sent these views for the purpose of crimination. I pray God 
for an end of that. But because it is indispensable in a just 
explanation of our position. 

In this connection, and to show that the sense of wrong 
growing out of this agitation was not confined to the South, 
it is proper to say that many leading Northern men, in and 
out of Congress, sustained the Southern and denounced the 
Northern view of it, and that, for a long time, the Southern 
view was sustained in many, and sometimes in most of the 
Northern States. The proceedings and debates of _ Congress, 
the messages of governors, proceedings of legislative bodies, 
and of political conventions and meetings, and the files of 



278 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

newspapers of the times will fully attest this, as will also your 
own memory. And it goes very far to show that men are not 
guilty of crimes when they act on the principles and follow 
the advice of those against whom their conduct is now said to 
offend. And this, I submit, should be considered in determin- 
ing the question of guilt or innocence, either moral or legal. 

Another question which has most material bearing on the 
question as to the legal guilt or innocence of those who opposed 
the Government, and which may become decisive of it, grows 
out of the character and form of the Government of the United 
States. This involves the question as to the ultimate right 
of a State, in the exercise of its own sovereignty, to sever 
its connection with the Union, and resume its position as a 
sovereign power. If this right exists, then the citizens of 
such States as legally passed ordinances of secession owed 
their allegiance to their ^several States, and were thereby 
absolved from their obligations to the Government of the United 
States, and were bound to take sides with their own States, 
or with the new Confederacy formed by them, in any war which 
they or it might become involved with that Government, and 
would not be guilty of treason or rebellion toward it. If this 
right does not exist, then the ordinances of secession of the 
several States were but legal nullities, and did not absolve the 
citizens from their allegiance and duty to the United States, 
and would leave such of them as engaged in war with that 
Government guilty of legal treason, and liable to the penalties 
for that crime. 

I know your Excellency's fixed opinions on this subject, 
and therefore do not state the question and will not discuss it 
with a view to ask a review or change of them. I am appeal- 
ing to your clemency for the adoption of the most humane 
and merciful, and, as I hope you may conclude, the most wise 
and just mode of closing this sad and bloody tragedy, on your 
own view of the law, and am not asking for a legal decision. 
The view I have to present on this subject, therefore, is intended 
to show that, if those in whose behalf I address you are legally 
guilty, the facts and reasons are such as to show the absence 
of moral guilt, and therefore to entitle them to your merciful 
consideration. We assume that the States are older than the 
Union. That they were separate sovereignties when, for their 
common good, they formed the Union. That the Constitution 
was the compact of union, to which the people and the States 
were parties. That it was a voluntary compact, entered into 



APPENDIX B 279 

for the particular purposes specified in it. That all the powers 
not specifically delegated were reserved to the States respec- 
tively, or to the people. That the States were sovereign as 
to all the rights and powers not granted to the United States. 
That in the formation of the Federal Government the distinc- 
tion was observed between a voluntary compact, depending on 
the will and consent of the parties to it, and a Government 
of force having unlimited power and authority. That no 
power was given the Federal Government to coerce a State by 
force and power, or to use the military and naval forces for 
such a purpose. That this was not only negatived by the 
absence of delegated authority, and by the terms and spirit of 
the Constitution, but by the rejection of a proposition, made 
in the convention which formed the Constitution, to give such 
power. And that the cases of usurpation of or encroachment 
upon the reserved right of a State might arise, for which no 
other remedy was provided, and that in such cases it must be 
the ultimate judge of its rights and remedies, and act on its 
own responsibility. This much as to the right. 

Then as to its application. We believed that the States were 
sovereign as to their right to control and regulate their own 
domestic institutions. That no power was given to the Federal 
Government to interfere with the domestic institutions of a 
State, or to one or more States to interfere with the domestic 
institutions of another State. That as to the several States, 
slavery was a domestic institution, each having the right and 
power to determine for itself whether it should or should not 
exist in it. That the Constitution of the United States pro- 
vided that Congress should pass laws providing for the recap- 
ture and rendition of fugitive slaves escaping from one State 
to another. That Congress had passed laws for this purpose. 
That some of the legislatures of the free States had passed 
laws nullifying the laws passed by Congress requiring the ren- 
dition of fugitive slaves, and imposing penalties on those who 
should attempt, within their territory, to execute the laws of 
Congress on this subject. That a great political party had 
been organized in the free States on the basis of opposition 
to slavery, which did not exist in those States and with which 
they had no right to interfere where it did exist. That this 
party had succeeded in securing the control of the popular 
branch of Congress, and in electing a President and Vice- 
President on issues purely sectional and hostile to the Southern 
States, preparatory to the overthrow of the Constitution and 



280 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

the destruction of their rights. Civil war had ensued in Kansas 
Territory on the slavery question. That John Brown's raid 
had been made into the State of Virginia, and his failure and 
death caused the tolling of bells in the Northern cities, the 
draping of Northern churches in mourning, and showed that 
his wanton and unprovoked attempt to inaugurate civil and 
servile war in the South had very largely the approval of 
Northern public sentiment. And a secret and anti-slavery 
society of Northern origin, called the "Mystic Red," had planned 
extensive arson, the murder of whites, and for the running 
off of large numbers of the slaves in the State of Texas, and 
which was so far executed as to burn a number of towns, vil- 
lages and smaller establishments, including county-seats. That 
against this war of aggression there was no remedy in the 
Union, and that their only safety was in withdrawing from it 
and forming a new government friendly to their rights and 
institutions, and thus removing all pretense that the abolition- 
ists Avere responsible for slavery because it existed in the gov- 
ernment in which they lived. 

To these is to be added the fears which the people 'of the 
South entertained of the usurpation and consolidation of unwar- 
ranted powers in the hands of the Federal Government, to enable 
those of the North to control the slavery question in the States, 
secure protection to their own peculiar commercial, maritime, 
and industrial interests, at the expense of the South, and so 
indirectly to impose undue burdens, for the support of the 
Government, on the Southern people. 

These convictions were very general and so thorough as to 
cause them to act upon their belief in the right of secession 
and to adopt it as the last and only remedy left for their security. 

Whether this doctrine be sound or not, the universality of 
the belief in it then gave the moral quality of good faith to 
their action on it, and furnished the strongest ground for miti- 
gating their offense if they were in error. And it is of the 
greatest consequence to them that this is not a new doctrine, 
but it is as old as the Constitution and was specially promul- 
gated in the Kentucky resolutions of 1798, which were drawn 
up by Mr. Jefferson, and in the Virginia resolutions of 1799, 
drawn up by Mr. Madison, and sustained by his great report 
to the Virginia legislature. Mr. Jefferson was elected Presi- 
dent of the United States at the next election after the pas- 
sage of these resolutions, and was reelected a second term, 
and Mr. Madison succeeded him for two terms, the two fill- 



APPENDIX B 281 

ing- the highest office in the Government, by the choice of the 
people, for sixteen successive years after the adoption of these 
resolutions. And to this may be added that many State legis- 
latures from that time forward to the present, running through 
all the history of the Government, have adopted similar reso- 
lutions and affirmed these; that many State political conven- 
tions of the Democratic party adopted and affirmed these reso- 
lutions from year to year, and that the same was done by the 
National Democratic conventions, for the nominations of can- 
didates for President and Vice-President, in the years 1852, 
1856 and i860, in two of which years the American people 
endorsed their doctrines by electing their nominees. 

Can it be a crime for men to believe a doctrine so old, so 
promulgated and accepted and believed by men of such ability 
and character, and by such numbers of men for three-quarters 
of a century? God forbid! Shall men be imprisoned, or 
exiled, or hanged, or have their property confiscated, or be 
disfranchised for believing political doctrines and acting on 
them, which have been the basis of the creed of the Demo- 
cratic part}^ during its whole existence, and the profession of 
which was the test of political orthodoxy? I do not mean 
to say that all of this party were secessionists or believed in 
the rights of secession ; but I do mean to say that the advocacy 
of the doctrine of States' Rights and strict construction was 
its chief and distinguished merit, and gave it what power and 
influence it had with the American people. And that the Ken- 
tucky and Virginia resolutions and Mr. Madison's report have 
always been the standard by which this doctrine has been 
tested, and that these maintained the ultimate right of a State, 
in the case of unwarranted usurpation or aggression on its 
reserved rights, to be the judge of its rights and of the remedies 
to be applied, and that it was not bound in such cases by the 
authority of the Federal Government, but to be resorted to 
only when there was no other remedy. 

I repeat that I am not now discussing the value or legality 
of this doctrine, but only endeavoring to show that men might 
have believed in it, and acted on it, in all honesty and good 
faith, without being morally guilty of crime. For myself, I 
declare this to have been true. I believed in this doctrine 
when I was a decided Union man and was engaged earnestly 
in combating sectionalism in the South as well as sectionalism 
in the North, as may be fully shown by my speeches in Con- 
gress and by my course before the people, and as you may see 



282 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

by my circular to my constituents in the spring of 1859, which 
was pubHshed in the National Intelligencer of Washington 
City at that time. I mention this that you may know that if 
I am wrong in this doctrine I was so before being involved 
in these troubles and without any reference to them. I see 
that the question is being discussed in the public prints as 
to whether it is not necessary for the Government, in the vin- 
dication of its principles and policy, and to strike such terror 
as to prevent any further rebellion against its authority, to 
impose extreme or at least great penalties on such persons 
of prominence in the cause of the Confederacy as may be 
tried and convicted. If the restoration of the authority of the 
Government, and the pacification and permanent peace of the 
country could not be secured without the infliction of these 
calamities, then such a policy might be necessary and proper, 
without inquiry as to whether the person to be so punished 
were more guilty according to the views of the Government 
than the general mass of those who took that side in the strug- 
gle. If, on the other hand, the authority of the Government 
can be restored, and the pacification and permanent repose of 
the country secured, without the infliction of such penalties, 
then their infliction could only gratify the bad passions of ven- 
geance and hate, and would be unnecessary and wanton cruelty. 
I need hardly say to one of your wisdom and experience that 
good policy and sound statesmanship always rest on reason 
and justice as their foundation, never on passion or rex^enge. 
I am not unmindful of the many causes which exist calculated 
to stifle the former and to excite the latter. But as the roar 
of battle dies away, and as the anguish and sufferings of the 
conflict become softened by the healing balm of peace and 
time, these passions will subside. And yourself and the emi- 
nent men associated with you, remembering the high authority 
with which you are clothed and the incalculable amount of 
happiness or of misery which must of necessity flow, for many 
years to come, from the line of policy you may adopt, will no 
doubt consider well which of these will control your policy, 
and guard against error on principles so vitally important. 

Such punishments could only be inflicted, in cases like the 
present, for two reasons — the one to confine or put out of the 
way a person or persons supposed to be dangerous to the repose 
of the country, the other to exert a restraining influence over 
the conduct of others. 



APPENDIX B 283 

Are either of these now necessary? To this I have to say 
that as the armed power of the Confederacy has ceased to 
exist, as its civil government is overthrown, and as all the hope 
of its people for separate national existence is at an end, there 
is no further inducement for a continuance of resistance to the 
authority of the Government, if the people are allowed the 
protection of the Constitution and the laws and the enjoyment 
of their rights. I believe, now, the appeal to arms having been 
decided against them, that no further punishment or force is 
necessary to induce their return to their allegiance to the 
Government. The passing current of events attests the truth 
of this, as to those who are free from arrest, in what are called 
the rebellious States. And the Government has the power of 
testing the disposition of those in prison. 

Again, on the first point, as to any necessity for the con- 
finement, exile, or execution of any of those lately resisting 
the Government because of their being supposed to be dan- 
gerous to the repose of the country, I would say that every 
reasonable apprehension on this subject has passed away. An 
organized political power which could be employed against 
the Government has ceased to exist. An army which might 
be employed against it does not exist. The people are weary 
of war and completely exhausted of the means of carrying 
on a war. They have no arms, no ammunition, no ordnance, 
no ordnance stores, since the late surrender, and no means of 
obtaining either. They have neither quartermaster or commis- 
sary stores, nor the means of obtaining them. They have no 
money nor the means of raising it. They have despaired of 
the achievement of their independence, and desire peace that 
they may attend to the wants of their suffering families. Under 
such circumstances, what officer or citizen could be considered 
dangerous to the peace of the country, or what means could 
he control to make him so ? 

On the second point, as to the punishment of prominent 
actors in the war for the sake of the restraining influence it 
might have on others in future, I would say that, in the strug- 
gle for the establishment of a particular house, or dynasty, or 
for the maintenance of a throne, or in support of a usurper, 
relying on his own powers and influence, and unsupported by 
the precedent political organization or the constitutional author- 
ity of those who were his followers, and when the main induce- 
ment was to sustain the particular man, or family, or repre- 
sentative of the crown, or to sustain a particular person in a 



284 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

usurpation not warranted by a precedent organic or constitu- 
tional act of the people he led, then the removal of such a 
leader might put an end to the cause of the war, and might 
justify, on grounds of policy, his execution, or exile, or impris- 
onment. But where a whole people unite themselves together, 
by what they believe to be constitutional acts of a political 
organization, for the maintenance of their supposed rights, and 
for the establishment of a government for their common bene- 
fit, having no reference to the promotion of the rank or for- 
tunes of any particular person or persons, and in the course 
of their proceedings elect officers from among themselves, if 
the enterprise be criminal, or if the cause fail and place them 
in the power of their adversary, then the guilt, or the conse- 
quences of failure, as the case may be, attaches alike to all, 
and there can be no just reason for selecting one in preference 
to another as an example or to bear the penalties of all. I 
have endeavored to show, in previous paragraphs, that there 
was no necessity for the selection of victims for punishment at 
all, in order to restore peace and secure the happiness of the 
country. 

The fate and the future of a whole people and vast country 
are now in the hands of the Government of which you are the 
head. The consequences which must follow whatever line of 
policy may be adopted will not stop with them, but must extend 
to the whole Union, and must be felt by all, for good or for 
evil, for years, perhaps for ages, after the passions which 
have been engendered by the contest shall have ceased to exist. 

In conclusion may I ask your Excellency to consider: 

1st. Whether the people of the States lately resisting the 
authority of the Government are not ready and willing to 
renew their allegiance to it, in good faith, without any neces- 
sity for increasing the sorrow and sufferings of the country 
by the employment of a harsh vindictive policy? 

2d. Whether it is not better to extend amnesty to all, on 
their agreeing to do so ? 

3d. Whether by doing so you will not sooner and more per- 
fectly secure the pacification of the country and the fraterni- 
zation of the people than in any other mode, and start all again 
on the high road to individual prosperity and happiness and 
to national glory and honor; and in doing so secure 3'ourself 
the consciousness of being a great public benefactor, and achieve 
a victory greater than was ever won by arms, by securing the 
triumph of reason over passion, substituting peace for war. 



APPENDIX B 285 

restoring to the countr_v friendship instead of hatred, repose 
and happiness for the strife and sorrow which now covers the 
land, and so entitle yourself to all the gratitude and honors your 
country can bestow. 

I hope the gravity of the question herein discussed and my 
own situation will sufficiently assure you that I would not 
lightly run the risk of ofi'ending your sense of propriety, or 
of being thought presumptuous in sending you this communica- 
tion, I have been induced to do so by the hope that I might 
be able to present some views which would promote the public 
good, aid in restoring peace and order, and soften the suffer- 
ings of my unfortunate countrymen, and especially of such as 
are in prison and peril as I am. 

Begging your pardon for anything which may seem obtru- 
sive or amiss in what I have said, and praying that you may 
be guided by Divine wisdom in your action, I am, 
Your Excellency's obedient servant, 

John H. Reagan. 

To be able to understand why such a letter as this one to 
the President, and the one to Secretary of State Seward were 
written, it would be necessary for the reader to call to mind 
the extraordinary condition of the country at that time ; and 
especially the condition of the Southern States, and their people. 
The people of eleven great States, and the greater part of the 
people of four others having the heel of oppression on their 
necks, it became the sacred duty of all those who could speak to 
do whatever they could to ameliorate those conditions, and 
to influence the abatement of the passions of war, and the 
adoption of the policies of peace. And on that view of the 
subject I acted in my Fort Warren letter, to the people of 
Texas, which follows this. It can now be seen whether the 
course I adopted, in the hour of painful trial, was wise and 
patriotic or not. 



APPENDIX C 

While still in prison, on the nth of August, 1865, I wrote 
the following, popularly known as my Fort Warren letter. 
I had as a member of Congress, for four years preceding the 
war, participated in the discussion of the issues which led to 
it, and my connection with the Confederate Government enabled 
me to realize the condition in which the war left us. My hope 
was that by sending this letter to the people of Texas it might 
influence them to adopt a course which would save them from 
military government and from universal negro suffrage. 

In Prison, Fort Warren, 
Boston Harbor, August 11, 1865. 
To THE People of Texas : 

The condition of the country is such as to awaken the anxious 
solicitude of every citizen. Portions of you have honored me 
with your confidence on many occasions. I have tried to repay 
that confidence by sincere efforts for your good, and by faith- 
ful service. Though now a prisoner, in solitary confinement, 
and far from you, without knowing when, if ever, I shall be 
permitted to mingle with you again, and my children and 
relatives and friends among you, my anxiety for their and 
your welfare induces me to ask the permission of the Govern- 
ment to send you this communication. I have tried to form 
a correct estimate of the condition of affairs, and send you 
the result of my reflections. The times demand the exercise 
of thought and reason, and the free expression of opinions. 
I hope mine may be the least suggestive. As our condition 
forces unwelcome thoughts and actions on us, and as, in my 
judgment, your best interests require you to assent to facts and 
conclusions, and to adopt measures, conforming to the new 
order of things, which must be repugnant to your past experi- 
ence and to your reason and prejudices, I take the liberty of 
suggesting to you frankly that line of action which seems to 
me best calculated to promote your welfare. I need not assure 



APPENDIX C 287 

you of my sympathy with you, and I trust I need not doubt 
your confidence that I would advise you to no course which 
I did not think best for you. 

I see that General Hamilton, who has been appointed Pro- 
visional Governor by the President, has entered on the dis- 
charge of his duties. He will have advised you of the policy 
of the Government, and of what will be expected of you, and 
will no doubt call a convention to organize the State govern- 
ment, as is being done in other States similarly situated. 

Your condition as a people is one of novelty and experiment, 
involving the necessity of political, social, and industrial recon- 
struction, after a sweeping and thorough revolution in all these 
respects ; and this is to be accomplished in opposition to your 
education, traditional policy, and prejudices. 

I do not propose to discuss either what belongs to the past, 
or the policy of what is now required of you, but to accept 
the present condition of things, as the result of the war, and 
of inevitable necessity, and from this, as a starting point, to 
inquire what policy our people should adopt for the future. 

You must, in the first place, recognize the necessity of mak- 
ing the most you can of your present condition, without the 
hope of doing all you might desire. This is required both by 
reason and necessity. 

The State occupies the condition of a conquered nation. 
State government and State sovereignty are in abeyance, and 
will be so held until you adopt a government and policy accept- 
able to the conquerors. A refusal to accede to these condi- 
tions would only result in a prolongation of the time during 
which you will be deprived of a civil government of your own 
choice. 

And it would do more than this — it would keep questions 
of the gravest character open for discussion and agitation, and 
by degrees accustom the whole country to a sort of military 
government, which, if greatly protracted, must necessarily sub- 
vert the civil government, and result in the establishment of a 
military despotism, without bringing you any nearer to the 
attainment of your v^rishes than you are at present. In order 
to secure to yourselves again the blessings of local self-govern- 
ment, and to avoid military rule, and the danger of running 
into military despotism, you must agree : 

First, to recognize the supreme authority of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, within the sphere of its powers, 
and its right to protect itself against disintegration by the seces- 
sion of the States. 



288 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

And, second, you must recognize the abolition of slavery, and 
the rights of those who have been slaves to the privileges and 
protection of the laws of the land. 

From what I can see this much will be required as the least 
that would likely satisfy the Government, and secure to you 
the benefits of civil government, and the admission of your 
members into the Congress of the United States. 

But even this may fail of the attainment of those ends, 
unless provision shall be made, by the new State government, 
for conferring the elective franchise on the former slaves. And 
present appearances indicate that this will be required by 
Northern public opinion and by Congress. And our people 
are in no condition to disregard that opinion or power with 
safety. But I am persuaded that you may satisfy both with- 
out further injury to yourselves than has already occurred. If 
you can do this, and secure to yourselves liberty, the protection 
of the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the 
right of local self-government, you will be more fortunate than 
many conquered peoples have been. The Government and the 
people of the Northern States will, I have no doubt, recognize 
the necessity of your securing these blessings, as important 
to the whole country, as a means of preserving to it constitu- 
tional liberty and the present form of republican government. 
This is new language to employ in addressing you, and will 
be as unwelcome to you as it is sorrowful to me. But it 
would be more than folly, it would be a great crime, for you, 
and me, and those who may be charged with the duty of reor- 
ganizing and restoring the State to the Union, to refuse to 
recognize the facts of your situation, however disagreeable, 
and to speak of and deal with them with candor and directness. 

While the Government offers its terms for the restoration 
of the State to the Union, it demands no other sacrifices than 
those already made by the result of the war, of renouncing 
the right of secession, and recognizing the abolition of slavery, 
with its necessary consequences. These demands being com- 
plied with, the civil governments will be organized, the military 
government withdrawn, your members will be admitted to their 
seats in Congress, and the State will be in the Union on an 
equality in all respects with the other States ; with no further 
disabilities, save only such as may attach to individuals. While 
the Government prescribes the conditions of this return, it 
authorizes the people of the State, through representatives of 
their own choice, to execute them. It seems to be the object 



APPENDIX C 289 

of the Government, in pursuing this course, to secure what 
it regards as the fruits of the victory it has won, and, at the 
same time, to preserve our form of government and the hber- 
ties of the people. I know that those who look to the past 
only, with its sacrifices and losses of principles believed to be 
true, of property possessed, of national independence sought, 
and of the heroic dead, may say why talk of liberty now, and 
of equality in the Union ? The answer is, that having attempted 
to secure and preserve these by an appeal to the God of bat- 
tles, we failed, and they now, so far as it relates to our political 
restoration, belong to the dead past, where it is the policy of 
the conquerors to leave them, and we are required to look to 
the living present and to the future. If it be thought hard 
to surrender so much, it must be remembered that such is the 
fate of war, and we must not forget that by the appeal to 
arms, whether willingly made or not, we staked not only 
what the Government exacts, but all our rights and property 
on the result. That we are not required to surrender all is 
due, not to the laws of war, but to the enlightened and Chris- 
tian age and country in which we live, to the liberality of 
the Government, and to the spirit and genius of our institu- 
tions. The questions as to which party to the contest was 
right or wrong, or as to whether both were partly right and 
partly wrong, and as to whether we did right or wrong in 
staking all on the fate of battle, were discussed before the 
war was commenced, and were decided by each party for itself, 
and, failing to agree, they made their appeal to the dread arbi- 
trament of arms. It was precisely because the parties could 
not agree as to the issues between them that they went to 
war, to settle them in that way. Why should we now think 
of reopening the discussion of these questions? What good 
would come of doing so? Wisdom requires us to accept the 
decision of battle upon the issues involved, and to be thank- 
ful that no more has been demanded by the conquerors, and 
to unite frankly, and as cheerfully as we can, with the Gov- 
ernment in carrying out the policy it has propounded. Some 
of our people seem to still think they can retain their prop- 
erty in slaves under the authority of the Constitution and 
laws of the United States. If the question had been originally 
submitted to the courts of the country, instead of to the trial 
of battle, this might have been the case. But we are not now 
permitted to claim the protection of the Government which 
we repudiated and fought against, unless by its consent. It 



290 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

says to the great mass of our people, you may retain your 
property except your slaves. They are now free. And unless 
you agree to this you can neither get back into the Govern- 
ment as a citizen, nor into its courts to assert your claims 
to slaves or any other species of property. The only wise 
and safe course for you to pursue is to accept promptly, unre- 
servedly, and in good faith the terms and policy offered, and 
to go forward in the work of reorganization and restoration 
to the Union. This requires your assent to great pecuniary 
sacrifices, momentous changes in your social and industrial 
system, and a surrender of your opinions and prejudices on 
most important questions. It is humbling to our self-esteem, 
humiliating to our pride, and cannot be more unwelcome to 
you than it is painful to me to feel that duty requires me to 
give and you to accept this advice. It is not that sort of advice 
which persons sometimes give but do not accept for them- 
selves. It is for me and mine as well as for you and yours. 

To the conferring of the elective franchise on your former 
slaves, I anticipate stubborn and sincere opposition, based upon 
the ignorance of the great mass of them, and their total want 
of information and experience in matters of legislation, admin- 
istration, and everything which pertains to the science of gov- 
ernment, and upon the pride of race. And this objection may 
be sustained by pointing to the examples of Mexico, and the 
Central American and the South American States, where by 
the enfranchisement of the Indians, and negroes, and all others, 
without reference to race or mental or moral fitness for the 
exercise of these responsible rights, they have been deprived 
of the blessings of peace, order, and good government, and 
involved in an almost uninterrupted series of wars and revo- 
lutions, often of the most cruel and barbarous character, for 
more than half a century, with no present prospect of an 
amelioration or improvement of their condition. But these 
difficulties are not insuperable, if you will meet them with 
patience and reason. I have no doubt that you can adopt a 
plan which will fully meet the demands of justice and fair- 
ness, and satisfy the Northern mind and the requirements of 
the Government, without endangering good government and 
repose of society. This can be done by : 

First, extending the privileges and protection of the laws 
over the negroes as they are over the whites, and allowing 
them to testify in the courts on the same conditions, leaving 
their testimony subject to the rules relating to its credibility, 



APPENDIX C 291 

but not objecting to its admissibility. And in this you will 
conform with the wise current of modern legislation and the 
tendency of judicial decisions in all enlightened countries. 

And, second, by fixing an intellectual and moral, and, if 
thought advisable, a property test, for the admission of all 
persons to the exercise of the elective franchise, without refer- 
ence to race or color, which would secure its intelligent exer- 
cise. My own views would be: First, that no person now 
entitled to the privilege of voting should be deprived of it by 
any new test. I would recognize in this the difference between 
taking away a right heretofore enjoyed, and the conferring of 
a right not heretofore exercised. Second, that to authorize 
the admission of persons hereafter to the exercise of the elective 
franchise they should be, ist, males; 2d, twenty-one years of 
age ; 3d, citizens of the United States ; 4th, should have resided 
in the State one year, and in the district, county, or precinct 
six months next preceding any election at which they pro- 
posed to vote ; 5th, should be able to read in the English lan- 
guage understandingly ; and, 6th, must have paid taxes for the 
last year preceding for which such taxes were due and pay- 
able, subject to any disqualification for crime, of which the 
person may have been duly convicted, which may be prescribed 
by law. 

The adoption of these measures in addition to those before 
mentioned, would, in my judgment, meet the ends of justice 
and fairness, secure the reestablishment of the State govern- 
ment, the admission of her Senators and Representatives in 
Congress, the suspension of military rule, and the restoration 
of civil, constitutional, and local self-government. And it 
would do more. It would secure your protection against other 
great and pending evils, and is, I am persuaded, of the greatest 
consequence to your future peace, prosperity and happiness. 
And for these reasons : 

First, it would remove all just grounds of antagonism 
between the white and black races. Unless this is done, end- 
less strife and bitterness of feeling must characterize their 
relations, and, as all history and human experience teach us, 
must sooner or later result in a war of races. We know from 
sad experience what war is between equals and enlightened 
people. But of all wars, a social war of races is the most 
relentless and cruel. The extermination or expulsion from the 
country, or enslavement of one or the other, being its inevitable 
end, where they are left to themselves; or the loss of liberty 



292 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

to both races, when they are subject to the control of a superior 
power, which would be our situation. I speak of course of the 
legal rights and status of the two races. Their social rela- 
tions are matters of taste and choice, and not subject to legis- 
lative regulations. 

Second, this course would disarm and put an end to inter- 
state, sectional, political agitation on this subject at least, which 
has been the special curse of our country for so many years, 
and which was the cause of the unnumbered woes we have 
recently experienced and still suffer, by depriving the agitators 
of a subject on which to keep up such agitation, and of the 
means of producing jealousy, animosity, and hatred between 
the different parts of the country, and between the different 
races. And this would do much toward a renewal of the 
ancient relations of national harmony atid fraternal good will 
between all parts of the country. And this too is of the great- 
est consequence to our future welfare, and especially to our 
people, who know there is no hope of escape from it by appeal- 
ing to the principles of State sovereignty and to the right of 
secession. 

If the State will adopt this policy at once it will attain the 
great ends heretofore mentioned, and it will save its own people 
from years of painful strife and agitation on these questions, 
which would at last, probably after years of contention, be 
found to be the only means of bringing it to an end, even if 
we are driven to nothing worse. How infinitely better it will 
be for you, for both races, for the present and future, for 
the whole country, if you will unhesitatingly recognize the 
existing unalterable facts as to your condition, and the inev- 
itable logic of events, and hasten, as it is in your power to do, 
the return of the blessings of civil government and constitu- 
tional liberty ; and avoid, as it is in your power to do, the fear- 
ful perils which now lie before you. 

I know the painful struggles against education, and habit, 
and tradition, and prejudice, which such a course will require 
you to encounter, and how hard it is for human nature to 
overcome such difficulties. But my sincere prayer is that God, 
in His goodness and mercy, may enable you to exhibit this last 
crowning evidence, in the midst of your calamities and sor- 
rows, of your greatness and wisdom as a people. 

I do not know how far it may be necessary or wise in the 
convention, and the succeeding legislatures, to change the gen- 



APPENDIX C 293 

eral frame of the State government. But if you will pardon 
me, there is a subject, in this connection, to which I will call 
your attention. 

For many years past it has been my opinion that we have 
carried our system of popular government to a vicious extreme, 
which has developed sad evils, and which required correction. 
I refer to the frequency of the occurrence of popular elections, 
to the great number of offices filled by the popular vote, and to 
the shortness of the terms of office. As our laws now stand, 
all officers, executive, judicial, ministerial, corporate and mili- 
tary, I believe, with the exception of the secretary of state, 
the Governor's private secretary, and the clerk of the Supreme 
Court, are elected by the popular vote of the people, and 
with the exception of the judges and clerks of the Supreme 
and district courts, and of State senators, for the short term of 
two years. And the elections are so arranged that a part of 
these are elected one year and a part the next, or alternate 
year, causing a general popular election every year. To this, 
there are, it seems to me, several serious objections. 

First, it involves the too frequent change of officers, and 
often the loss of skill and experience ; and these changes also 
produce expensive and inconvenient changes of business to a 
great number of people. 

Second, it involves too much expense and loss of time to the 
public generally, and especially to the large number of candi- 
dates, with no compensating benefit. 

And, third, which is the main and most serious objection, 
annual popular elections keep the country in an almost continual 
political canvass and commotion, and produce and keep up an 
unnatural and injurious public excitement, for which there is no 
necessity, and no compensating benefit. And for many years, 
before the commencement of our late trovibles, these might well 
have produced the impression that the carrying on of canvasses 
and the holding of elections were the principal business of the 
country, while the carrying on of the various industrial and 
professional pursuits, the rearing and education of families, and 
the support of the Government were but incidental matters. 
The remedy for these evils may be easily found, and as easily 
applied, with very great benefit to the public, and with greatly 
increased credit and safety to our system of free popular self- 
government. 

The one I would recommend would be : 

First, to lengthen all terms of office, which are now two, to 
four years. 



294 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Second, to require all general elections, as far as practicable, 
to take place during the same year, and at the same time. 

And, third, to provide: ist. that the State treasurer, comp- 
troller, attorney-general, and commissioner of the general land 
office should be appointed by the nomination of the Governor 
and confirmation of the Senate, as the secretary of the state now 
is ; 2d, that the clerks of the district courts should be appointed 
by the several judges, as the clerk of the Supreme Court is by 
the judges of the court; 3d, that the county courts should 
appoint their clerks and the sheriffs, coroner, assessors and 
collectors of taxes, county treasurers, county surveyors, and 
the constables for the several precincts of their several counties ; 
4th, that the mayor and aldermen or councilmen of all cities and 
towns should appoint their clerks, marshals, treasurers, and 
other officers. 

This would withdraw the appointment of the vast number of 
ministerial officers from the scramble, excitement, expense, loss 
of time, and commotion of popular elections. It would confer 
the authority for their appointment on responsible, intelligent 
men, who would have been elected to office by the people, and 
would be responsible to them ; and it would secure their appoint- 
ment on account of their qualifications and fitness for their 
several duties, rather than for political considerations, or on 
account of mere personal popularity, without reference to these 
qualities. It would give greater dignity and importance to our 
county courts, which they never can have to a proper extent 
under our present system. 

It would at the same time retain to the people the election by 
popular vote of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, State 
senators and representatives, judges of the Supreme and district 
courts, district attorney, chief justices and commissioners of 
county courts, justices of the peace, and the mayor and aldermen 
or councilmen of cities and towns ; embracing the chief execu- 
tive officer of the State, and all those who have the power of 
making laws, or of expounding them or of imposing taxes or 
other burdens on the people. 

And what is of most value, it would render the elections so 
infrequent and so far apart as to suspend all excitement about 
them for long intervals, and allow the people to pursue their 
ordinary vocations free from the repeated interruptions and 
excitements to which they are subject under our present system ; 
and it would put an end to the corrupting and debasing trade of 
politics which was created and is being nourished and strength- 
ened by the number and frequency of popular elections. 



APPENDIX C 295 

I am persuaded that some such change as this is essential to 
the pubHc welfare as well as to the credit and success of our 
system of government, to the permanency of our institutions, 
and the repose and security of society. And this will be doubly 
important now, since such great numbers of people, heretofore 
slaves, and in great ignorance, are now made freemen, and are 
to become, in some form, either participants or an element in all 
our political contests. 

With these two lines of policy adopted, I think, notwithstand- 
ing all your recent misfortunes, you might look with hope and 
confidence to the future. The negroes wall, it is hoped, grad- 
ually diffuse themselves among the greatly preponderating 
numbers of the whites, in the different States and Territories ; 
many of them will probably go to Mexico, and other countries, 
in search of social equality, and few or none of their race will 
be added to their numbers by accessions from other countries. 
While the steady rapid influx of great numbers of the white 
races, from other countries, will gradually increase the dispro- 
portion in numbers between them and the whites, and so render 
this new element in society and governm.ent innocuous, or at least 
powerless for evil, if they should be so inclined. But from the 
general docility of their dispositions we may expect the most of 
them to be orderly, and many of them industrious and useful 
citizens. But to secure these desirable ends, it must not be 
forgotten that it is an essential prerequisite to confer on them 
their reasonable and necessary rights, and to adopt a policy 
which will prevent them from becoming an element of political 
agitation, and strife and danger. And we must bury past 
animosities with those of our fellow-citizens with whom we 
have been at war, and cultivate with them feelings of mutual 
charity and fraternal good will. And it will be greatly to your 
advantage, in many ways which I cannot trespass upon you to 
mention now, to hold out inducements to them, and to ernigrants 
from other countries, to come and settle among you, with their 
labor, and skill, and capital, to assist in the diffusion of employ- 
ments, the increase of your population, and the development of 
your vast resources into new creations of wealth and power.^ 

Time, and patience, and wisdom, and justice, mingled with 
the holy precepts in the New Testament, are necessary to enable 
you to "secure these great and beneficent ends. That you may 
by the means I have indicated or others secure these results, 
shall have my constant hopes and prayers. 

Very truly and respectfully, 

John H. Reagan. 



APPENDIX D 

Richmond, Virginia, November 8, 1865. 
Major George W. White, Washington, D. C. 

My dear Sir : Recurring to our conversation at Washington 
and to your request for a memorandum of the points I then 
suggested on the subject of the trial of Mr. Davis, the late 
President of the Confederacy, I would say that I felt great 
anxiety to speak with President Johnson on the subject, but did 
not do so in the short interview I had with him, and did not call 
on him again for this special purpose because I could not know 
how he would receive such suggestions from me. Your 
acquaintance with the President and position toward him may 
render him accessible to you on this subject, and, if so, I beg that 
you will call his attention to the following considerations : 

First. That if he directs the trial of Mr. Davis it will no 
doubt be before a civil court and to obtain a judicial decision 
against the rightfulness of secession as a peaceful remedy for 
grievances by States of the Union. The passions engendered 
by the war and greatly aggravated by the death of President 
Lincoln, have now so far subsided, and peace having been prac- 
tically restored, if he is to be tried, it will probably be before a 
civil court. President Johnson, by his course, has shown that 
he fully comprehends the great responsibilities of his position, 
and the fact that upon him and the result of the action of Con- 
gress at its approaching session, the future of the country is 
fearfully suspended. If civil government shall be restored to 
the Southern States, their members of Congress admitted to 
their seats, their right of local self-government recognized, and 
these States and people clothed with the protection of the Con- 
stitution and laws of the United States, and trusted as in former 
times, the question will be settled that civil liberty is to be again 
insured to them, and we shall all be in the high road to prosperity 
and happiness again; and the President will have enrolled his 
name high, as a great and wise statesman and benefactor of his 
country and race, and our free republican form of government 
will be preserved. The recognition of his views, and the gen- 



APPENDIX D 297 

erous course he is pursuing toward the Southern States and 
people, is commanding the sympathy and concihating the feel- 
ings of the whole South ; and from the great change and 
softening of opinion in the North, I am led to believe that it will 
command the approval of the people of that section too. What 
we now need, and what every patriot must desire, is the restora- 
tion of fraternal good feeling and charity and kindness between 
the people of the different sections of the country. This is being 
brought about, much faster than might have been expected, by 
the President's policy. And I am led to believe, from all that 
I could see and hear, that he is going forward with this policy 
as fast as public opinion will allow. It is in the line of his 
policy, and would be its legitimate and most wise and noble 
consummation, for it to end by a general amnesty as soon as the 
President can be safe in adopting this course, and there is no 
act short of this which would do so much toward the restoration 
of good feeling in the South, and toward securing, both toward 
the President and the Government, the generous sympathy of 
all, as the release of Mr. Davis from prison and his restoration 
to his family and home. I look upon this as the logical and 
necessary result of President Johnson's policy, and beg of you, 
if the opportunity offers itself, to present this view fully to him. 
Second. If Mr. Davis should be tried before a civil court I 
assume as a fixed fact that the President would direct a fair 
and impartial trial. He would neither consent to the injury of 
his own reputation nor the character of the Government by 
allowing him to be tried before prejudiced or partisan judges 
or a packed jur}^ And to my mind there may be most weighty 
reasons why the Government should not desire to put Mr. Davis 
on trial, looking from the point of view which the President 
doubtless occupies. The only reason for a trial, as before 
suggested, would be to secure the determination by the courts 
that secession is not a lawful remedy for grievances. This 
question, whatever the theory of the Constitution may have 
been, has now been practically settled by a most awful and 
fearful appeal to the ultimate and most terrible of tribunals and 
by the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of valuable lives and 
of thousands of millions of dollars. All know that hencefor- 
ward secession is war, and hereafter it will only be regarded as 
another name for revolution. Now, it seems to me, with all 
respect, that after the question has been so settled by so august 
an appeal to the dread arbitrament of arms, that the trial of any 
man in a civil court to settle the same question would only be 
an unworthy afterpiece to a great tragedy. 



298 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Third. If he should be tried, the decision of this question 
of the rightfuhiess of secession would be made to depend on 
the verdict of guilty or not guilty, to be rendered by the jury, 
and that without right of appeal to the Supreme Court, which 
is not provided for in such cases. And this would depend not 
upon the abstract consideration of the law of the case, but upon 
the law and the facts, the intent of the prisoner being also an 
element which would enter into their consideration ; and, as in 
other criminal cases, he would be entitled to the benefit of any 
reasonable doubt which might arise as to his guilt. His counsel 
might, to explain the motives and intent with which he acted, 
introduce the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 
'99, and the resolutions of many other State legislatures running 
all along through their subsequent history, and of many State 
conventions, involving the right of secession. They might also 
ofifer in evidence the proceedings of many State and National 
political conventions, asserting the same doctrines, through a 
long series of years. They might also introduce in evidence 
the opinions of Hon. Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, and the 
proceedings of the House of Representatives in relation to them, 
amounting to a quasi-endorsement of them, growing out of the 
last war with Great Britain. And the views of Mr. Rawles on 
this subject, given in his Commentaries on the Constitution, and 
of Air. Wheaton in his work on International Law, both 
Northern men and writers of great learning and ability, who 
could not be presumed to be influenced by any other considera- 
tion than a sincere desire to ascertain and state the true theory 
of the governments. State and National, under which we lived 
might also be placed in evidence in which they concluded that 
the Federal Government had no right to coerce a refractory 
State. They might also introduce in evidence, for this purpose, 
the messages of numerous governors of States, embracing those 
of many of the Northern and probably all of the Southern 
States ; speeches of Senators and Representatives in Congress 
from all parts of the Union, and the messages of Presidents to 
show that the doctrine of secession was as old as the Consti- 
tution and has been constantly asserted all through the his- 
tory of the Governments by brave legislative bodies and 
by conventions, and by high official personages, both in the 
Federal and the State governments. And these being presented 
to it, is it at all probable that an impartial jury would say that 
all these contemplated, meditated, designed treason, and that 
Mr. Davis should now be sentenced to death as a traitor for 



APPENDIX D 299 

believing and acting on these views? Is it not possible, and 
even most probable, that we should have this question practically 
settled against secession by war, and in favor of it by a verdict 
of not guilty, and thus reach a result the very reverse of what is 
desired by the government? 

The question may arise as to why, with these views, I should 
wish to avert such a trial. The answer is that I sincerely desire 
to see peace and order and good government and good feeling 
restored throughout the land ; that I believe a trial would cause 
unnecessary perplexity and difficulty to the Government, and 
would be likely to unsettle the question of the right of secession. 
And I object to the trial because it would increase and prolong 
the vexations and sorrows of Mr. Davis, without tending to 
any valuable result, and would revive the exasperation of feel- 
ing between the people of the different parts of the country now 
happily, under the President's policy, being rapidly allayed ; and 
because it would tend to increase the difficulties in the way of 
the full execution of the President's policy for the early restora- 
tion of the country to its former condition of constitutional 
government and civil liberty. And I believe there never was a 
period in this or any other country when magnanimity and trust 
and confidence between the governm.ent and the people, and 
between the people of the different portions of the country, was 
worth more or could be employed with greater advantage ; or 
when the employment of mere force would do more injury or 
inflict a more irreparable wound on the cause of constitutional 
government and civil liberty. 

I beg, my dear sir, your best efforts to present these views to 
the President, not as an official paper for file, but at the earliest 
time at which you can get access to him, when he may be able 
to spare the time to hear you. And I should suppose this might 
be most satisfactorily done at his residence of an evening. You 
can do so by a verbal statement, or, if you think it advisable, 
when you present the subject you may read this memorandum 
to him. He may have considered this and all of the other views 
of which this case is susceptible, but the pressure of great 
questions so constantly on him may have prevented him from 
considering the whole question in this aspect, and, in any event, 
I hope for good to result by calling his mind to this line of 
thought. I cannot doubt that he will see it will be best for the 
whole country, best for humanity and best for his own fame. 
Providence has placed the happiness and prosperity and liberty 
of his country, as well as the control of his own record for 



300 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

posterity, in his own hands, and I have faith to believe that he 
will recognize, in this general hne of thought, the true means to 
preserve each and all of these. 

Please do all you can for the release of our friend. Governor 
Lubbock, and write to me at Anderson, Grimes County, Texas, 
whether you succeed in getting this matter before the President. 
I think it important that you should get the President, if 
possible, to consider these matters before he prepares his 
message for Congress. 

Very truly, your friend, 

John H. Reagan. 



APPENDIX E. 

Fort Houston, Near Palestine, Texas, 

October 12, 1866. 
Gov. J. W. Throckmorton. 

Esteemed Friend: I have avoided participation in the dis- 
cussion of public questions since my return home last winter, be- 
cause I am still a prisoner on parole, and subject to the pleasure 
of the Government, and because of the disfavor with which the 
letter I wrote from my prison at Fort Warren was received by 
the people. But I think the time has come, in view of our situa- 
tion, present and prospective, when I should be unfaithful to the 
most sacred duty of the citizen by refusing to contribute what- 
ever I may to the public welfare. And I can do so with the 
greater freedom now, as our State ofificers and Senators to Con- 
gress will be chosen on the 15th inst., which will disembarrass 
the discussions of great public questions by disconnecting them 
from any political canvass or personal aspirations, and leave the 
subjects to be discussed to rest on their own resources. Our long 
acquaintance and friendship, your position as Governor of the 
State, my confidence in your capacity to comprehend our situa- 
tion, and in your political integrity and moral courage, induces 
me to ask your perusal of this letter and your most serious con- 
sideration of the subjects which I desire to call to your attention. 

Our struggle for independence and separate nationality came 
to an end in April and May of last year, by the surrender of our 
armies. Our people promptly recognized our overthrow, and 
also the necessity of submitting to its logical results, a part of 
which were the surrender of our institution of slavery, the aban- 
donment of the doctrine of secession as a practical remedy for 
State grievances, the return of their allegiance to the Govern- 
ment of the United States, the repudiation of the Confederate 
debt, and the consent, implied in the renewal of their allegiance, 
to bear their part in the burdens of the Government of the 
United States, including the payment of the national debt. 

I think my situation and means of information, from the time 
of the surrender of our armies to the meeting of the last session 



302 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

of Congress, enable me to understand the opinion and purposes 
of the Northern people; and that the masses of them were 
pleased with the prompt and spontaneous action of our people in 
accepting- the results of the war, and that they, with some excep- 
tions of persons and localities, but not sufficient to thwart the 
general will, were anxious for speedy reconciliation, the restora- 
tion of fraternal good will, order, peace and prosperity. But 
their purpose was distinctly manifest that a final adjustment 
could only be made on the conditions of securing complete pro- 
tection to the persons, property and rights of the negroes, and 
the conferring of either the general right of suffrage on them, 
or the right qualified by the tests of intelligence or property, or 
both, with the extensions of the same tests to the white race. 

A comoliance with these conditions, and those previously 
mentioned, was all, in my opinion, that was then necessary to 
secure the restoration of the civil government in the several 
States, the admission of our Senators and Representatives to 
their seats in Congress (subject to the test oath, the law 
prescribing which would in all probability have been repealed), 
the withdrawal of the military from among us, the termination 
of the duties of the Freedmen's Bureau, and the restoration of 
order, peace and security to the great mass, and possibly to all, 
of our people. 

The Southern States have complied with the demands made 
on them in relation to the freeing of the negroes, in relation to 
the doctrine of secession, by the citizens returning to their alle- 
giance to the Government of the United States, by the repudia- 
tion of the Confederate debt, and by the assumption of their 
portion of the burdens of the General Government. They have 
also made provisions in their Constitutions and laws for the 
more or less perfect protection of the persons and property of 
the negroes, and in some or all of the States they have provided 
that they may testify in the courts, in cases in which negroes 
are concerned. But in none of them, except in the case of South 
Carolina, has it been provided that the negroes shall be witnesses 
in all cases, nor has any provision been made extending the right 
of suffrage to them, in any form, in any of these States. Is it 
th^e deliberate purpose of our people, after having complied with 
all the other demands imposed on them, to sacrifice their rights, 
property and liberty, and all that is valuable and dear to them, 
rather than confer these privileges and the protection of equal 
laws on the negroes? And is there an intelligent and well-in- 
formed man in the whole South who does not know that we will 



APPENDIX E 303 

not be represented in Congress, or freed from the embarrass- 
ments and dangers which now threaten us, until we do extend 
these privileges to the negroes ? There are persons who assume 
that President Johnson is opposed to negro suffrage, but such 
persons are not well informed. He justly denies the authority of 
Congress to prescribe the qualifications of electors, because Con- 
gress has no right under the Constitution to do so. But in a 
dispatch to Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, last summer a 
year ago he urged the importance of giving the right of suf- 
frage to the negroes, and he has on other occasions said that as a 
citizen of Tennessee he would be in favor of the State allowing 
the negroes the privilege of voting; and he all the time de- 
manded for them the protection of the laws. And if these States 
had complied with his wishes on these subjects he would not now 
have been so heroically fighting a hopeless political battle for the 
constitutional rights of all, and his policy would have carried 
most of the Northern States in the election of this fall, and the 
next would have been a conservative Congress. 

Impressed with a full and clear conviction of what would 
be their demands of us before our State and people would be per- 
mitted to enjoy their full rights and privileges in the Union, on 
the nth of August, 1865, I wrote from my solitary confinement 
at Fort Warren an address to the people of Texas, telling them 
what would be demanded of them, as the condition of their res- 
toration to their rights as citizens, to security and repose, and 
to the restoration of civil self-government to the States, and 
representation in Congress. And I gave such reasons as seemed 
to me to be conclusive that they should promptly accept what 
seemed to them the demands of our conquerors, rather than 
leave the settlement of those great questions open until a system 
of military government should be inaugurated by Congress, and 
our future condition and hope made to depend on the complica- 
tions of the politics of the Northern States, and subject to the 
evil passions which would probably grow out of such compHca- 
tions. The letter was addressed to the then Provisional Gov- 
ernor Hamilton, and the original may be on file in your office. 
If so, and your legislature will permit, I would ask you to read 
it now, in the light of events which have transpired since it was 
written. If you do so you will probably see that I was not mis- 
taken in pointing out the consequences to our people which 
would follow a failure to adopt its recommendations. In it I 
told our people that in addition to the requirements in relation to 
the freeing of the slave and the repudiation of the doctrine of 



304 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

secession, they must consent to give the negroes the protection of 
their persons, property and rights by law ; that they must allow 
them to be witnesses in the courts on the same conditions that 
applied to whites, and that they must provide that, as to all per- 
sons hereafter to be admitted to the exercise of the elective fran- 
chise they should be able to read intelligently in the English lan- 
guage, and to show that they had paid the last taxes due, before 
they could be allowed to vote ; and that these conditions were to 
be imposed alike on white and black ; that in adopting any test 
which could exclude the ignorant mass of negroes from the polls 
and thereby avoid the evils and dangers of universal negro suf- 
frage, it was indispensable to make it acceptable to the North, 
and so secure our rights and safety, to make it applicable to both 
races. And I urged in that letter that policy would promote our 
future welfare by causing the negro race among us to feel that we 
were still their friends and protectors, and of securing their con- 
tentment and disposition to industry and order, and of preventing 
the evils of their discontent and the danger of an ultimate war 
of races, and by giving them all the rights which could in reason 
and justice be demanded for them, prevent their longer remain- 
ing an element in the politics of the country, to distract, divide 
and embitter the feelings of the people of section against section, 
and of race against race. 

The omission of the Southern States to adopt this policy 
promptly caused the adoption by Congress, at its last session, of 
the alternative policy. This produced the new freeman's bureau 
law and the civil rights law of last session, and the adoption by 
Congress of the proposed amendment of the Constitution — all 
designed to give that protection and those rights to the negroes 
which our legislatures had neglected to give, and to repress and 
control the spirit from which the neglect arose. Such a line of 
policy was to have been foreseen by all who rightly contemplated 
the then existing conditions of things, and who looked wisely to 
that future which is now partly — and for our country sadly — re- 
vealed. It has also produced those new and difficult complica- 
tions which no wise man could avoid foreseeing, and which 
greatly increase the embarrassments which would have then at- 
tended an adjustment of all our troubles. Other considerations 
have had their influence in producing the present state of affairs, 
such as the evil and ill-controlled passions of the less rational and 
less intelligent of both sections, and the spirit of political parti- 
sanship, and the love of power and place, of a portion of the peo- 
ple of the Northern States, which subordinated the true inter- 



APPENDIX E 305 

ests of the country and the spirit and letters of the Constitu- 
tion, the great bulwark and shield of the American liberty, to the 
supposed necessities of party. To these latter I am not so situ- 
ated as to appeal with any hope that my views would be favor- 
ably received, because of the part which I took in the late strug- 
gle. But to your Excellency, and to the people of Texas, and 
to all those with whom I have sympathized and served and suf- 
fered in that struggle, I have a right to appeal for the adoption 
of such a line of policy, on our part, as will secure the restora- 
tion of liberty to our country, the recognition of the rights of 
our people as citizens of the United States, the preservation of 
what little property we have left, and the restoration of peace, 
order and prosperity to the country again ; or, if we fail in the 
attainment of these great ends, as will show to the world and to 
posterity that we had done all that could reasonably and right- 
fully have been demanded of us in order to their attainment. 

To this end I would urge you to use your great influence, and 
that of your official position, to induce the legislature, now in 
session, 

First, to pass such laws, in execution of the provisions of our 
recently adopted constitution, as will give the negroes full and 
perfect protection in their persons, rights and property, and free 
access to the same courts on the same terms with the whites. 

Second, as would cause them to be received as witnesses in 
the courts on the same conditions in all cases as the whites, mak- 
ing no objection to the admissibility of their testimony on ac- 
count of their color or race, and leaving it, as is the case with 
all others, subject to the test of credibility. 

Third, the adoption of such a test as will require all those who 
shall hereafter be admitted to the exercise of the elective fran- 
chise to be able to read intelligently in the English language, and 
to have paid all taxes due ; making this test applicable to all, 
without distinction of race or color. 

Fourth, equal taxation in all respects upon whites and ne- 
groes, and the setting apart for the education of negroes of that 
part of the fund collected from them ; and provisions for em- 
ploying this fund for their education as soon as it shall become 
large enough to be made available. 

There is reason to hope that the adoption of these provisions 
would be accepted by the Northern people and by the Govern- 
ment as a sufficient guarantee that our people had accepted the 
results of the war in good faith, and had in this done every- 
thing that could be done by them to give full freedom, security 



306 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

and protection to the negroes, and to encourage them to industry 
and self-support, and to mental and moral improvement; and if 
partisan spirit and animosity should for the present induce the 
majority of Congress to refuse to accept the adoption of these 
measures, with those which have heretofore been adopted, as 
sufficient to entitle us to representation in Congress, and to all 
the privileges of local self-government which are enjoyed by the 
other States and the people of the Union, and to the protection 
of the Constitution and laws of the United States, it would be 
made clear to the world, and to the judgment of all just and 
impartial men, that it was not for any fault of ours, but because 
they had determined to persecute and oppress a conquered peo- 
ple, and to that end to subvert the Constitution and establish 
military government over all these States, and thus to inaugu- 
rate a policy which must, as long as persisted in, prevent the pay- 
ment of the national debt by diverting the public funds to the 
payment of the expenses of the large army and great number 
of officers which would be required to carry out their policy, and 
by the impoverishment of so large a section of the Union, and 
the destruction of its resources to such an extent as to render it 
unable to contribute in any considerable degree to the revenues 
of the country ; to increase the bitterness of feelings between 
the sections, and encourage feelings of hostility between the 
whites and the negroes, which would probably lead to a war of 
races ; to create a longing by the oppressed for a war between 
the United States and foreign powers, which would give them 
a chance to better their condition by a change of government, or 
at least change their master, and as would necessarily lead to 
fundamental changes in the character of the Government, and to 
the ultimate loss of liberty to the whole people, and to the de- 
struction of our system of free republican government, and the 
crushing under some form of monarchy, or swallowing up in 
the terrible maelstroms of anarchy of this fair fabric of political 
and religious liberty, whose Constitution and early history would 
be the only monument of the wisdom, virtue and patriotism of its 
founders. 

And these considerations, and others which connect them- 
selves with these and must be apparent, must address themselves 
to the thinking men of the North, and I have no doubt will en- 
able them to convince the less wise and more reckless of the ne- 
cessity of accepting these terms, and of so avoiding the great 
evils and dangers which now lie before us, and of securing to 
themselves and to us the great blessings which would follow. 



APPENDIX E 307 

In relation to the first of the foregoing propositions, the con- 
stitution of this State, recently adopted by the vote of the peo- 
ple, provides, Article VIII. Section i, as follows: 

African slavery, as it has heretofore existed, having been termi- 
nated in this State by the Government of the United States by force 
of arms, and its re-establishment being prohibited by the amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States, it is declared that neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in this 
State; and Africans and their descendants shall be protected in their 
rights of person and property by appropriate legislation; they shall 
have the right to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, 
to acquire, hold, and transmit property ; and all criminal prosecutions 
against them shall be conducted in the same manner as prosecutions 
for like offenses against the white race, and they shall be subject to 
like penalties. 

It is incumbent on the legislature to provide, by the appro- 
priate legislation mentioned in this article of the Constitution, 
for carrying it into efifect, as well as to secure the great ends 
therein proposed to be effected by it. The legislature of the 
State of South Carolina, at its recent session, impressed with a 
sense of the necessity of such a measure, passed an act as fol- 
lows : 

IV. The statutes and regulations concerning slaves are now inappli- 
cable to persons of color ; and although such persons are not entitled 
to social or political equality with white persons, they shall have the 
right to acquire, own, and dispose of property; to make contracts; to 
enjoy the fruits of their labor; to sue and be sued; and to receive 
protection under the law in their persons and property. 

V. All rights and remedies respecting persons or property, and all 
duties and liabilities under law, civil and criminal, which apply to 
white persons, are extended to persons of color, subject to the modi- 
fications made in this act and other acts hereinbefore mentioned. 

The action of this gallant State may well furnish a persuasive 
example to others similarly situated, and exhibits a good sense 
equal to the patriotism shown by her people in our contest for 
independence. 

On the second of the foregoing propositions our recent con- 
vention provides in the constitution, Article VIII, Section 2, 
that: 

Africans and their descendants shall not be prohibited, on account 
of color or race, from testifying as witnesses, in any case, civil or 
criminal, involving the right of injury to, or crime against, any of 
them, in person or property, under the same rules of evidence that 



308 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

may be applicable to the white race; the credibility of their testimony 
to be determined by the court or jury hearing the same; and the 
legislature shall have power to authorize them to testify as witnesses 
in all other cases, under such regulations as may be prescribed, as to 
facts hereafter prescribed, as to facts hereafter occurring. 

The delusion prevails extensively with the public that this 
clause of the constitution only allows negroes to testify as be- 
tween negroes, and not against white persons, but its provisions 
are that they shall "Testify orally as witnesses in any case, civil 
or criminal, involving the right of, injury to, or crime against 
any of them in person or property, under the same rules of evi- 
dence as may be applicable to the white race" — and it matters 
not whether the right, injury or crime be effected by the act of a 
white person or negro, if it is an injury to a negro the testimony 
of a negro is to be received in relation to it. And as the testi- 
mony of negroes is to be received against white persons in all 
cases where persons of their race are parties, under this pro- 
vision it would seem that this privilege was secured to them in 
the cases in which their prejudices would be most likely to be 
enlisted, involving the rights of their own race, and that there 
would be even less danger in allowing them to testify in cases 
between white persons, for in such cases they might be expected 
to be less partial and prejudiced, because in them the rights of 
none of their own race would be involved. 

On this point the above-quoted act of the legislature of South 
Carolina provides that : 

All persons heretofore known in law in this State as slaves, or as 
free persons of color * * * shall be affiants and give evidence the 
same as white persons. 

The adoption of this principle is not only necessary in order to 
meet the demands of the Northern public opinion, but since the 
recent change of the relations of the negroes to the Government 
and society, is wise and necessary as our own local policy, be- 
cause it will cause the negroes to feel an increased sense of se- 
curity among us, and to confide in us as friends ; and be- 
cause it will facilitate in many cases the attainment of the ends 
of justice and serve as an additional check on vice and crime. 
Suppose, for example, that a white man should employ a negro 
to do an act of malicious mischief, or to commit a crime against 
another white man, and that this fact was known only to negroes. 
The guilty employer of the base instrument must go unpunished, 
unless negroes are allowed to testify in cases between white per- 



APPENDIX E 309 

sons. Or suppose one white person should commit an assault, 
or battery, or murder, on another white person, or a theft, arson 
or burglary, and this should be known only to negroes. Should 
the offender go unpunished ? And this enlargement of the rule 
allowing all persons to testify who may have knowledge of the 
facts of the case is in accordance with the tendency of modern 
legislation and judicial decisions in all enlightened countries. 

In reference to the third position, I have to repeat substan- 
tially what I said in my letter from Fort Warren — that I under- 
stand the sincere opposition of our people to conferring the elect- 
ive franchise on the negroes, even under a test of intelligence, 
on account of the ignorance of the great mass of them, and their 
want of information and experience in matters of government 
and law, and everything which pertains to the interests of society 
at large, and more especially on account of the difficulties which 
arise from the pride of race, and from our traditional aversion to 
anything which seems to tend to political equality with an igno- 
rant and degraded people, who have been for ages slaves, and 
for the most part limited in their employments to the ruder sorts 
of labor and to menial offices. No one can be more sensible than 
myself of the great danger to our system of government, and to 
the best interests of society, of conferring the right of suffrage 
on the whole mass of our negro population — or of universal suf- 
frage, as it is called. Of the effects of such policy we have the 
saddest warning in the history of Mexico, and of Central 
America and the South American States, where the zeal for lib- 
erty and progress induced these governments to clothe with the 
elective franchise the native Indians, who were both uneducated 
and unacquainted with political matters, and especially with sys- 
tems of free popular government, where they formed numeri- 
cally a large element, and on the negroes and mixed bloods, who, 
though less numerous, were possibly more ignorant than the In- 
dians. From this great error sprung chiefly, no doubt, the suc- 
cession of revolutions and wars in these countries, often the most 
bloody and cruel, which have continued for more than half a 
century, and from which the patriot and philanthropist can 
hardly look with hope to a future which shall promise repose, 
security and happiness to their people. 

The intelligence of the white race with us, and its education 
in and long exercise of the privileges and duties of citizens of a 
government, and their preponderance in numbers and the in- 
fluence they may retain over the negroes by a wise and liberal 
policy toward them, might make the danger of conferring the 



310 MEMOIRS BY JOHN II. REAGAN 

elective franchise on them less than it was with the people of 
these countries, where even the Europeans and intelligent classes 
did not understand the principles of free popular self-govern- 
ment, and had no experience in the exercise of the duties of citi- 
zens and legislators in and for such a government. Republics, 
of all governments, require the greatest amount of intelligence 
and moral virtue in their people to give them stability and pre- 
serve them from decay, and no one can doubt the evil influence, 
and even the great danger to the permanency of our system of 
government, and to the preservation of popular liberty, of ad- 
mitting to the exercise of the elective franchise the whole body 
of negroes in the Southern States. And nothing short of the 
necessity of preserving the rights of the white race, and of 
avoiding a change of the relative position of the two races, could 
justify us in consenting to it. 

With these facts and reasons before us, on the one side, we 
have, on the other, our own condition, with a limited control of 
our State government, which may be terminated at any time by 
a Congress in which we have no voice; the jurisdiction of the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and that under the Civil Rights Law ex- 
tended over us, both foreign to our system of free government, 
destructive of the principles which give security to person and 
property, and dangerous to liberty ; a crusade being now prac- 
ticed against us by reckless Northern agitators, who are igno- 
rant of the spirit with which we again offer our allegiance to a 
common government, of the condition we are in, and of the ne- 
cessities of our situation, and unwilling, it would seem, to accept- 
any assurances we can give them ; by Northern office-holders in 
the South interested in the perpetuation of their power and sal- 
aries ; by Southern correspondents of Northern newspapers, who 
retain their employment by furnishing falsehoods to keep alive 
Northern agitation, and by the Southern men, who, embittered 
against their fellow-citizens and neighbors, have gone North to 
gain notoriety and the applause of the rabble, with most prob- 
ably the expectation of returning as a sort of pro-consul, to rule 
when the State government shall be annulled, and we are placed 
under military rule, fulminating in the name of Southern loy- 
alty, the grossest and most wicked falsehoods against us, invok- 
ing war, confiscation and death on the Southern people, and ap- 
pealing to the Northern people for universal negro suffrage and 
proscription of large numbers of the Southern people from the 
same right as the widest ground on which those States and peo- 
ple shall be restored to such rights as may be left them. And in 



APPENDIX E 311 

addition to these, we see from all our sources of information 
that the right of the negroes among us to vote in some form is 
demanded, and has been steadily since the close of the war, in 
some form, as a sine qua non to the giving us the security and 
protection of the Constitution and laws, and to our States their 
equal position in the Union. 

Now it becomes us to consider whether we cannot satisfy this 
demand, and at the same time to avoid the loss of our own rights 
and the dangers of universal negro suffrage. I think this can be 
done by conferring the elective franchise on those of them who 
are possessed of sufficient intelligence to exercise it, and by 
making the test which shall secure this standard of intelligence 
to apply to such of the white race as shall hereafter be admitted 
to its exercise ; for a limitation which would only affect the ne- 
groes, and would allow whites of a less degree of intelligence, 
according to the standard adopted, to vote, would do no good 
toward securing the great ends we desire to attain. And I have 
not doubted, since after our overthrow, that we had sooner or 
later to concede negro suffrage in this qualified form, and uni- 
versal negro suffrage. And I now tell you that those who op- 
pose negro suffrage in this qualified form elect by this act to 
force universal negro suffrage on the country, and ought to be 
and will be held responsible by our people for it when it comes, 
and they ought no longer be allowed to shield themselves under 
pretended ignorance from the consequences of such criminal 
demagoguery. And if this plan, or some equivalent one, be not 
adopted by our legislature, the day is not distant when the peo- 
ple of this State will hold them responsible for having refused to 
see and comprehend these facts, and thereby forcing on the State 
the disfranchisement of the whites, as well as universal negro 
suffrage. 

It is known that many Northern men who support the radical 
party and policy would accept this plan as equitable, and as con- 
ferring the elective franchise on all now capable of exercising it 
with safety to the public interests, while its tendency would be 
to induce others to qualify themselves for this exercise, and thus 
to elevate this race, if that be practicable, in the scale of intelli- 
gence, and in every way the better to fit them for the duties and 
responsibilities of citizenship. 

Mr. Greeley, one of the ablest and most sincere friends of the 
negro race, has, through the Tribune newspaper, which exer- 
cises a very large influence over Northern sentiment on this sub- 
ject, expressed his willingness to concur in this plan. And it 



312 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

would have the support of the example of a number of the 
Northern States, including Massachusetts, in which such tests 
are prescribed, and of the fact that no Northern State has yet 
conferred the right of suffrage on negroes, except under tests 
of intelligence, or of property qualifications, intended to secure 
its intelligent exercise — and reason, good policy and a decent 
respect for public opinion would conspire to prevent them from 
insisting on a broader rule for us, where, on account of the 
great number of negroes, the danger would be greater than for 
themselves. 

In relation to the fourth of the above propositions, the con- 
stitution of this State provides, Article VII, Section 27, that: 

Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. All 
property in this State shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be 
ascertained or directed by law, except such property as two-thirds of 
both houses of the legislature may think proper to exempt from taxa- 
tion. The legislature shall have power to lay an income tax, and to 
tax all persons pursuing any occupation, trade or profession ; provided 
that the term occupation shall not be construed to apply to pursuits 
either agricultural or mechanical. 

This provision of the constitution precludes the necessity of 
any argument to enforce the principle of equal taxation on all. 

On the other branch of this proposition the constitution pro- 
vides. Article X, Section 7, that : 

The legislature may provide for levying a tax for educational pur- 
poses ; provided the taxes levied shall be distributed from year to year, 
as the same may be collected ; and provided, that all the sums arising 
from said tax, which may be collected from Africans or persons of 
African descent, shall be exclusively appropriated for the maintenance 
of a system of public schools for Africans and their children, and it 
shall be the duty of the legislature to encourage schools among these 
people. 

The carrying into effect of these two provisions of the con- 
stitution, by the necessary legislation, would cover my fourth 
and last proposition. The first provision must, of course, be 
carried into effect by the present legislature, in providing for 
the assessment and collection of the taxes necessary for the cur- 
rent support of the government. Weighed down, as we are at 
the present, under poverty and disabilities, and National and 
State indebtedness and taxation, it could hardly be expected that 
the legislature would now carry into effect the latter provision 
by imposing an additional tax for educational purposes ; and it 



APPENDIX E 313 

may be found necessary to defer, until times of greater pros- 
perity, the carrying out of its wise and beneficial provisions, in 
the spirit of the section of the constitution above quoted. 

Such legislation will carry into effect the provisions of the 
constitution quoted in the examination of these several proposi- 
tions, giving the same legal protection to the persons, property 
and rights of the negroes which is secured to the whites ; the 
same remedies for their enforcement, the same privilege of testi- 
fying in the courts, and the same rule, under whatever test the 
legislature may see proper to adopt, for admitting them in fu- 
ture to the exercise of the elective franchise which shall be ap- 
plied to the whites. If these measures shall be adopted at its 
present session before the opening of next Congress, and be- 
fore the renewal of Congressional action and agitation on these 
subjects, they could not fail to have a most beneficial effect on 
the interests of our State and people, and might secure the early 
admission of our Senators and Representatives to their seats in 
Congress, and the removal of many -of our present embarrass- 
ments, and satisfy Congress, as fully as would our adoption of 
the proposed amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States, of our good faith and loyalty to the Federal Government, 
and thus preserve the rights of the large class of our citizens 
who would be disfranchised by the adoption of that amendment. 
And who will doubt that the adoption of these measures would 
be more wise and beneficial to our people than to refuse to adopt 
them and remain under our present disabilities and liability to 
the adoption of the constitutional amendment, and to the hor- 
ror of the plan of Mr. Stephens, of Pennsylvania, for the final 
settlement of our past troubles, which would involve us in new 
disasters infinitely surpassing in cruelty and atrocity anything 
we have yet experienced, by declaring our State governments 
nullities, putting our people under military rule, confiscating the 
property of those who participated in our recent struggle, and 
applying it to the payment of the expenses and damages of the 
war, and by conferring on the negroes all the franchises which 
we have heretofore enjoyed, and making them our superiors and 
rulers. 

Frightful and horrible as this picture is, our people ought now 
to be admonished, by what is daily transpiring in the Northern 
States, that its realization is possible, unless they take such steps 
as are in their power to avert such a calamity. And if our legis- 
lature should fall so far below its duty, and the emergency of 
the times, as to neglect the performance of these duties, the pec- 



314 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

pie of the State, in mass-meetings, should demand of them the 
necessary action or their resignation, in order that their places 
may be filled by those who will act. And let it be borne in mind 
that the adoption of these measures will deprive no white man 
of a single right which he now possesses, and may be the means 
of restoring to them many rights which are now withheld from 
them and that they only enlarge the rights of others so as to bene- 
fit them and the public at large. And let the question be asked by 
every citizen of himself if he can object, on the score of any in- 
fringements of his own rights, to these measures, and if his only 
objection does not arise from his prejudices and passions. And 
then let him ask himself if his prejudices and passions prevent 
him from doing justice to others, from adopting a wise policy 
for our own local interests, and a policy which may save us from 
misfortunes and sorrow, from the contemplation of which our 
minds turn away with dread and horror, whether it lies in his 
mouth to complain of wrongs done to us through the prejudices 
and passions of others, and whether, if our own folly shall in- 
voke on us more troubles and sorrow, we can or ought to expect 
the sympathy of mankind when they come. 

There is one more argument I would address to those who 
may be influenced by selfish motives, and who may be unable 
or unwilling to act upon reasons of justice, sound policy and pa- 
triotism. I fear it is too true, here, as well as elsewhere, that in 
a popular government like ours there are too many seeking po- 
sitions of public trust and honor who will assent to and advo- 
cate any principles, or oppose any policy, if by doing so they 
can, for the time being, secure their promotion to or continuance 
in office. And such men understand that the passions of men 
are more easily acted on than their reason, and are far more 
likely, in the masses of men, to influence them than their reason. 
This is one of the great evils to be guarded against in our sys- 
tem of government, and the adoption or the rejection of this 
theory, in the practice of public men, marks the boundary be- 
tween the patriot and the demagogue. To such men I would 
say, whether they now hold office, or expect in the future to 
do so, they might do well to inquire whether a refusal to adopt 
such measures as will propitiate Northern sentiment may not 
cause all those in office to be turned out, and those who expect 
to hold official positions in the future to be rendered incapable 
of holding them by the adoption of the constitutional amend- 
ment, or even by more prescriptive measures. And if there be 
any now in our legislature who would sacrifice the public good^ 



APPENDIX E 315 

either from moral cowardice, or because of the wish to pander 
to the passions and prejudices of their constituents, and secure 
their reelection to office, they may well inquire whether there 
will be another legislature convened under our authority, if we 
refuse to adopt such measures as those above recommended, and 
whether, if this should be, they may not be rendered ineligible 
to a seat in it 

In any event, let all remember that though reason may be 
stifled and overborne for the time it will sooner or later assert 
its power over the popular mind, and that those who lead in the 
clamor against it are always the first victims of popular opinion 
when it resumes its sway. Your Excellency and the members 
of the legislature have accepted the responsibilities of your 
several positions, and cannot shrink from them if so inclined ; 
and failure to act wisely, boldly and promptly in these matters 
will unfold to you and them, in the near future, the terrible ex- 
tent of that responsibility to yourselves, and its effect on our 
people and State. 

I have spoken plainly and strongly, and avoided glittering 
generalities, because the condition of our people and country de- 
mands of every one who would discuss our situation, and the 
remedies for it, truth and fidelity to principles, candor and di- 
rectness, and because I have no ends to serve but those of my 
country. On my own account I would gladly have shrunk from 
the responsibility of sending you this paper, and from giving it 
to the public, which it is my expectation to do ; but duty to my 
family, and friends and fellow-citizens would not allow me to 
longer remain silent when everything dear to us is at stake, and 
when, so far as I know, no voice is being raised in this direction 
to save us. I do not forget that when fourteen months ago I ad- 
dressed similar opinions to the people of our State they not only 
rejected them, but many impugned the motives which induced 
me to write them. But if human experience and reason are 
worth anything, when they re-read that letter now, in the light 
of events which have transpired in that time, and in view of 
the prospects before us, they will hardly question its wisdom, or 
the purity of the motives which induced me to write it. If they 
should do so I may be excused for saying that I have been a 
citizen of Texas for more than twenty-seven years ; that for 
more than twenty years of that time I have filled various public 
offices ; that for fifteen years of that time I have filled official 
positions of high public trust, in the State, in the United States 
and in the Confederate governments ; that I have tried to per- 



316 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

form faithfully all the duties which these positions devolved 
on me, and to execute faithfully every trust which was confided 
in me. I think my fellow-citizens will accord me the honor of 
having- never advocated a measure simply because it was popu- 
lar, and of not having declined to avow my opinions on public 
questions because they were unpopular, when my duty required 
me to speak. I have neither deceived a friend nor betrayed a 
trust, public or private. In my last canvass for a seat in Con- 
gress of the United States I risked whatever of popularity I 
had in combating measures which I thought led to disunion, and 
the advocacy of measures designed to prevent it. But when 
the war came I felt that we were the proposed victims of 
aggression and wrong, and stood by my section in the defense 
of our rights, of the graves of our fathers and the homes of our 
families. I did all, and suffered all in my power for our success, 
and when the dreadful crash came, and many were seeking their 
personal safety, I stood by our noble and heroic chief until we 
were made prisoners together, preferring whatever fate might 
befall me to the sacrifice of duty and manhood. In this contest 
I lost nearly all the available means I had for the support of my 
family. I have suffered imprisonment and peril, and am still 
a prisoner, and liable to trial and death for having served but 
too faithfully those who, since my letter from Fort Warren, have 
been traducing and denouncing me for it. From comfort and 
plenty I am reduced, by my devotion to their interests and cause, 
to poverty and to daily toil for the support of my family. With 
such a past I could hardly be expected to engage in sentimental 
whinings over that which I could not prevent — which we all 
could not prevent. And I am persuaded that when that past is 
supported by such facts and reasons as I now offer, I may rea- 
sonably expect that what I may say in behalf of my suffering 
countrymen and the land of my home and hopes will not again 
be misunderstood or misconstrued. 
With much respect. 

Your Excellency's friend and obedient servant, 

(Signed) John H. Reagan. 



APPENDIX F 

Pensacola Navy Yard. 

The House Committee on Appropriations submitted a report 
the effect of which was to do away with the navy yard at 
Pensacola, Florida, which I regarded as a serious mistake. I 
secured the adoption of amendments by which that important 
navy yard was continued and provided for. On the 19th of 
May, 1876, I made the following speech on that subject: 

Mr. Reagan. Mr. Chairman, I recognize the delicacy of 
undertaking to oppose in any of its parts a measure recom- 
mended by one of the leading committees of this House ; and I 
would not offer a word of objection to the bill reported by the 
committee if I did not feel that a sense of duty and propriety 
required this to be done. In that portion of the bill beginning 
with line 43 it is provided : 

For the civil establishment at the navy yards at Brooklyn, New York ; 
League Island, Pennsylvania ; Norfolk, Virginia, and Mare Island, 
California, $80,000; and for the protection and care of the navy yards 
not enumerated, $5,000. And the Secretary of the Navy is hereby 
directed to make inquiry as to the best method of making sale of the 
navy yards at Charleston, Washington and Pensacola. 

I shall at a proper time propose to amend this portion of the 
bill by inserting after the word "California," in the forty-fifth 
line, the words "and Pensacola," and by increasing the appro- 
priation in the same line from $80,000 to $100,000. I shall 
propose to do that for the purpose of keeping Pensacola in its 
position as one of the navy yards to be used for repairs, or, if 
deemed necessary, for repairs and construction. I shall then 
propose to strike out in line fifty the words "and Pensacola," 
so that this navy yard shall not be included in the list of those 
in regard to which the Secretary of the Navy is to be directed 
to make inquiry as to the best method of making sale of them. 



318 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

In looking into this subject, Mr. Chairman, I shall not attempt 
to discuss the question as to the number of navy yards that 
there ought to be upon the Atlantic coast. That there ought to 
be one upon the Gulf of Mexico and one upon the Pacific coast, 
will not, I think, be controverted. We have upon the Gulf coast 
no private yards in which the war vessels of the Government 
can be repaired ; and in this age of the world we need for the 
purposes of war not only steam vessels but ironclad vessels. 
In case of war with a foreign power, if one of our vessels in 
the Gulf squadron should become crippled or disabled in any 
way, such a vessel, without a navy yard there for repairing and 
refitting, would have to be dropped out of service or brought 
around Cape Sable and up the Atlantic coast to a place where 
it could be repaired, losing the time of the officers and crew, 
and taking the perils of such a voyage in a crippled condition 
in time of war. 

In looking at our national necessities I may be excused for 
calling attention for a moment to that portion of the United 
States. The Gulf of Mexico may well be termed our Mediter- 
ranean, a great sea in itself. It is from the Atlantic coast of 
Florida by an air line about two hundred and sixty miles west- 
ward to Pensacola. It is from the Atlantic shore of Florida 
four hundred miles by an air line westward to the Mississippi. 
It is from the Atlantic shore of Florida seven hundred miles to 
the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico. It is from Cape 
Sable westward to Galveston eleven hundred miles and more 
across the Gulf of Mexico. It is from the mouth of the 
Mississippi River southward to the southern part of the Gulf 
of Mexico west of Yucatan eight hundred miles and more, and 
from Pensacola more than five hundred southeast to Cape Sable. 
I mention this to show the magnitude of that inland sea, bounded 
on the east by Florida, by the islands of Cuba, Hayti, and the 
other West India islands, and by the peninsula of Yucatan ; on 
the south by Mexico and Texas ; and on the north by Louisiana, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. 

Upon that Gulf there is now a large commerce. If the work 
going on for the deepening the mouth of the Mississippi River 
by the South Pass succeeds, as it is hoped by Mr. Eads, the 
projector of that great work, it may succeed, and we get twenty- 
eight feet of water there for the largest class of vessels, the 
amount of commerce passing out of the great and fertile valley 
of the Mississippi to the open ocean will be almost incredible. 
At present it is very large. If the work going on at Galveston 



APPENDIX F 319 

shall succeed in giving the depth of water that the United States 
engineers believe it will give, this commerce will be still further 
enlarged. There, too, is being concentrated the commerce of 
the State of Texas, with its present population of a million and 
a half of people, and with an increase of between 200,000 and 
300,000 a year. With the commerce that will go there from 
the Indian Territory, from Kansas, from New Mexico, from 
the northern States of the Republic of Mexico, a commerce will 
be centered at the great commercial emporium of what we call 
the "new west" only less than that which will be poured out of 
the mouth of the Mississippi River. 

Remember that on our entire coast, extending from Cape 
Sable up the western coast of Florida and along the coast of 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas for more than 
fifteen hundred miles, we have no other naval station of ship- 
yards than Pensacola. That has a fine depth of water, capable 
of bearing almost any, perhaps any, vessel in the American 
Navy. It has a fine harbor and roadstead. It is a fortified 
position, well secured against danger. It would seem that our 
national necessities would not be so far overlooked as to destroy 
this only ship-yard upon that extensive coast. 

One thing more I desire to say on this subject. In case of 
war with a foreign naval power the vulnerable part of the 
United States is upon the Gulf coast. A war inaugurated now 
with Great Britain, with France or with Spain, unless the mouth 
of the Mississippi River was protected by a sufficient number 
of our best monitors, would be as easily ascended by a hostile 
fleet of war vessels as it was by the Federal fleet during the 
recent interstate war. It will be remembered that Fort St. 
Philip, Fort Jackson, and other batteries along the shores of 
the Mississippi were not sufficient to stay the progress of a 
fleet composed in part at least of wooden vessels. 

The commerce of the Mississippi Valley deserves and needs 
protection ; and when I speak of this commerce I do not mean 
to be understood as speaking alone of the commerce of the 
country bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, for it is likewise the 
commerce of Louisiana, of Arkansas, of Mississippi, of 
Tennessee, of Kentucky, of Missouri, and of all the rich States 
which lie between the Ohio and the Mississippi and to the west 
of the Mississippi, which finds its way to market by means of 
that unequaled channel of commerce. Protection, therefore, is 
necessary. 



320 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Galveston, the other point I mentioned standing second in 
commercial importance to New Orleans upon the Gulf, is in 
such condition to-day that war vessels could bombard and 
destroy the city and its commerce. I have not spoken of 
Mobile, Brashear, Sabine Pass, Indianola, Corpus Christi, and 
the other towns which lie upon the border of this great inland 
sea. All of them in case of war would be exposed to the 
ravages of an enemy and incalculable injury could be done to 
us, for many of them are to-day without a particle of protection. 
Even Galveston to-day has not a single gun mounted, and not 
a single step has yet been taken to protect it, in case of war, 
against a hostile fleet. 

What would the consequence be if we were drawn into war, 
which we all trust may not happen? For, sir, we cannot take 
to ourselves the assurance that we shall be exempt from war. 
Our Government occupies a position which makes it necessary 
that it should deal with all the great questions which interest the 
nationalities of the earth. It must take its responsibility in dis- 
posing of these great questions. It should direct its commercial 
policy to more intimate relations with Mexico, the Central 
American and South American states, so that instead of manu- 
facturers from other quarters supplying those countries, they 
should come from New England, or the Middle States. It seems 
to me there is no reason why, under a Vv^ise, prudent and proper 
policy, we should not control the vast trade of those countries, 
very little of which we control at this time. In our intercourse 
with them we must grow and increase ; we stand liable to compli- 
cations. We have seen that we were liable to be drawn into dif- 
ficulty on account of the trouble in the island of Cuba. We can- 
not tell but danger will be on us at any moment. It is at least 
prudent in time of peace to make needful and reasonable prep- 
arations for war. That preparation may avert what might 
otherwise fall upon us. 

A great power like this, having its relations with the whole 
civilized world, needs and must have a navy. It should have one 
that would command for the government that respect due to one 
of the first powers of the earth. If we have such a navy we must 
provide for building ships of war, and for repairing them. I 
have heard it suggested in conversation that this might be done 
at private shipyards. As vessels of war are now built, we can 
hardly expect, even in our progressive, go-ahead country, to find 
private shipyards that will prepare such iron, and in such quan- 
tities as will be necessary for the construction of great iron war 



APPENDIX F 321 

Steamers. If we are to have these, they must be made by the 
Government, at least in large part. In this connection let me 
read an extract from the report of the Secretary of the Navy, 
Gideon Welles, in 1866: 

For the construction of iron and armored vessels, it can only be 
repeated that although our country has the material in great abundance, 
and possesses many advantages in that regard, we are almost wholly 
unprepared. In future maritime wars the contests between the great 
naval powers for supremacy on the ocean will be determined chiefly 
by iron-clad or armored ships. Our turreted vessels or monitors will 
be powerful and effective for harbor and coast defense, but in conflict 
with any European power our countrymen will hardly be content with 
mere defensive warfare. 

Armored vessels for ocean cruising must necessarily be of large size, 
which cannot, with the requisite strength, be secured in wooden struc- 
tures. If attempted, the immense mass of timber must rapidly decay, 
and the cost resulting from deterioration will be such as no economical 
and prudent nation will consent to sustain. Ships for cruising and 
offensive operations must be such as can use sails, for no vessel can 
long keep the sea under steam alone. Such vessels as are here suggested 
should be built at a Government establishment, for though private 
enterprise can do much in aid of the Navy, the peculiarities of iron 
vessels for naval purposes are such that private parties cannot undertake 
the work unless at prices which will cover all the outlay for the establish- 
ment as well as the vessel, for there can be no other customer than the 
Government for such work. 

In this view of the subject it is plainly the interest of the Government 
to erect its own shops and machinery, and to possess its own establish- 
ment for the construction of its iron and armored naval vessels. Several 
years of preparation will be required to provide the necessary appliances 
for such an establishment, and a special and convenient location, with 
ample area, should be promptly selected. In each of the navy yards a 
dry-dock is indispensable, and for a steam navy there should be suitable 
shops and accommodations for the repair of vessels. 

I read this much from the report of Secretary Welles of 1866 
on the point as to the necessity of Government navy yards 
possessing the peculiar machinery necessary to the building of 
ships of war such as are used in modern times. While I have 
this report in my hand I will also read an extract from it m 
regard to the navy yard at Pensacola. After going on at some 
length, reasoning upon the necessity for establishing the navy 
yards at Norfolk and Pensacola, he uses this language : 

The suppression of the rebellion and the reestablishment of that peace 
and unity which constitute us one country and one people, make it a 
duty to restore these nafonal establishments to their former efficient 
condition. In so far as there was reason during the rebellion for 



322 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

refusing to do this, because insurrection prevailed in the region where 
the yards are situated, that reason no longer exists. True, the 
expenditures will be made in States which were in rebellion, but the 
rebellion has passed away, the States are parts of the Union, and the 
establishments which are to be renovated are national in their character 
and of general interest to all. Upon the Pensacola, even in its present 
ruinous state, we must depend for repairs and supplies for any squadron 
we may employ to guard the ocean outlet of the great Central Valley 
of the Union and of our whole coast bordering on the Gulf. To neglect 
to put that yard in proper condition would be to neglect Iowa, Illinois, 
and the States north, as well as Louisiana and Mississippi. 

In the event of a foreign war with the great maritime powers, our 
country would labor under serious disadvantages were we without a 
navy yard or naval station in the Gulf. A naval force of steamers — 
and all fighting vessels must hereafter be steamers — could not be 
maintained in the Gulf without frequent repairs and supplies- With 
no navy yard in the Gulf, the disabled vessels would necessarily be 
withdrawn from their station and compelled to proceed to a Northern 
yard for refitment. Besides the perils incident to a voyage under these 
circumstances, with an enemy on the coast, the services of the officers 
and crews, as well as of the vessel itself, would be lost during the time 
slie might be absent in going to and returning from a Northern yard. 
The rebels and the waste of war have devastated the Norfolk and 
Pensacola navy yards, but the best interests of the service and the 
obligations of the Government are not less imperative now, and when 
peace and Union are restored, to place them in proper condition. It is 
to be hoped, therefore, that liberal appropriations will be made for that 
purpose. 

Wliiie reading extracts from official sources I will call atten- 
tion to what is said by the present Secretary of the Navy in his 
last annual report in regard to the Pensacola navy yard. He 

says : 

Dur;ng the past year the old hospital building within the walls of the 
yard has been torn down and destroyed, and a new hospital erected 
upon the ruins of one without the walls, destroyed during the war. 

While it is not deemed wise to place this yard in condition for 
building ships, yet it is considered eminently proper that it should 
possess all requisite facilities for docking and repairing the vessels of 
the North Atlantic squadron. Several additional buildings are necessary, 
and estimates are submitted for another timber-shed and a machine 
shop for steam engineering- 
It is hoped that two sections of the iron sectional dock for this navy 
yard will be finished during the present fiscal year. 

Therefore the last report that comes from the Secretary of 
the Navy sustains the one made several years ago by Secretary 
Welles as to the importance and necessity of preserving that 
navy yard, at least for repairs and supplies. It may be matter 



APPENDIX F 323 

for future determination how far construction shall go on there. 
Two vessels of war at least were built there in former times. 
In addition to the necessity of a naval station and navy yard for 
the repair and supply of vessels on that vast inland sea for the 
protection of our coast cities and great commerce, it may be 
said in relation to Pensacola that in addition to its fine, 
capacious, and secure harbor and deep water, it lies in the finest 
timber region on the Atlantic waters. The suppHes of live-oak 
to all the navy yards of the country come from Florida, and I 
was going to say from Texas, but I am not sure of that. But 
in Florida and on the coast of Texas along the Colorado and 
Lower Brazos are vast supplies of live-oak timber. In south- 
eastern Texas, back of the Sabine Pass, on the Sabine and 
Neches rivers, there are almost limitless amounts of as fine 
white-oak as grows on the continent. And many years ago I 
was told by a gentleman who had made an examination of the 
fine pine regions bordering these two rivers lying back of the 
Sabine Pass that even then, since the pine had been cut as in 
Maine and in Florida, the finest timber for spars and masts was 
to be found in eastern Texas. So that you have the live-oak 
and white-oak if needed, and the finest timber for masts and 
spars on the Atlantic waters close around Pensacola. 

In addition to this there are mines of coal and iron up the 
Alabama River now being developed in limitless quantities at 
a convenient distance from Pensacola. The means of transpor- 
tation for the coal and iron which go down the Mississippi 
River to Pensacola are such that they may be carried there with 
great ease and facility and cheapness ; so that they have all the 
materials necessary for the repair or construction and supply of 
ships. I see, therefore, no reason why that place should not be 
considered as occupying a commanding position for a navy yard. 

The suggestion has been made that Pensacola is subject to 
occasional visitations of yellow fever, and that in the prevalence 
of that disease the workmen may have to abandon their post of 
duty. It is true that all the towns and cities upon that coast are 
occasionally subject to visitations of yellow fever. But it is 
proper for me to say that in a period of fifteen years at least — 
and some more, I think, may be added to that, but I will not 
undertake to say precisely how many from memory — that city 
has only been visited twice by yellow fever. 

Mr. Hewitt of Alabama. It never originates there. 

Mr. Finley. It is always imported. 



324 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Mr. Reagan. Two gentlemen near me suggest that it never 
originates there and is always imported. Proper quarantine 
regulations will at all times protect that place against yellow 
fever. 

But the time which might be lost, it may be once in five years 
or so, by the workmen at that yard for that reason, will not be 
equal to the loss of time in the cold regions of the North, where 
our navy yards are, because of frost and snow. With the 
exception of such danger as may exist from this source there 
is nothing at all in the way at any time or at any season of the 
year to impede the work of construction and repairs going on 
at that navy yard. 

It will not do to say that because the people of that region are 
sometimes subject to the scourge of the yellow fever — and I 
understand from physicians that in modern times it has modified 
somewhat in its type, and possesses less terror for the people 
than formerly — it should be remembered that our country is 
there, our people are there, our commerce and trade are there, 
our national honor is pledged as much to the protection of that 
people and that commerce as it is to the protection of any other 
portion of the American people and the American commerce. 
Where our people live, where they rear their families, where 
they make their homes in the sunny lands of the South as 
happily as elsewhere, surely the officers and employees of the 
Government can live. 

I say this in order to meet that argument if it be suggested. 
It has just as much force as I have indicated, and no more. It 
will not do to say that that country must be abandoned to its 
fate ; that the commerce of the vast region of country that pours 
into the Gulf of Mexico is in case of war to be left at the mercy 
of the enemy because sometimes there may be yellow fever at 
Pensacola where our navy yard is. 

I have said this much because I feel that in proposing to strike 
out so much of the appropriation as is necessary to keep in 
existence the navy yard at Pensacola the committee have made 
a great mistake. The national interest, the national honor, and 
the national peace demand that it shall not be done. 

The Committee on Naval Affairs make a different recommen- 
dation, but we are not now dealing with their report. It recom- 
mends, as I understand, in conformity with the recommendation 
of the Secretary of the Navy, that the Pensacola navy yard shall 
be preserved for repairs and supplies. If we make no appropria- 
tion for it, the law leaves it without the means of carrying it on, 



APPENDIX F 325 

and the vast amount of money that has already been expended 
there must be lost, the national defense must sufifer, and in the 
event of war the commerce of our country must be unprotected 
to an extent that I am not now fully prepared to show. I have 
said this for the purpose of calling the attention of the Com- 
mittee of the Whole this evening to the subject, so that when the 
proper time arrives I may offer the necessary amendment to 
preserve this navy yard as recommended by the Secretary of 
the Navy and by the Committee on Naval Affairs. 



APPENDIX G 
The Louisiana Returning Board 

Mr. Reagan. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Pennsyl- 
vania (Mr. Kelley) has just told us that this House is not 
clothed with imperial powers. We might infer from his 
remarks, and from those of his political associates, that there 
was in this country no body which was omnipotent, irresponsible, 
and imperial, but a Louisiana returning board. 

The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Kasson) warns us against 
the unconstitutionality and danger of seizing upon the State 
officers and State archives of Louisiana and bringing them 
before this House. The gentleman and others seem to forget 
that a Republican Senate brought the same kind of officers and 
archives from Louisiana, before their committee here during the 
last Congress, and these gentlemen made no complaint or protest 
against that. And the Republican Senate has at this session 
brousrht the Governor of Oregon before its committee, and these 
gentlemen have made no complaint or protest against that. 

Mr. Kasson. There was no protest I believe; there was no 
issue made in either case by the State authorities. 

Mr. Reagan. Mr. Speaker, in the short time allowed me for 
the discussion of the question before the House, and without 
opportunity for careful preparation, I shall not be able to make 
a fair presentation of it. 

We are within a few weeks of the time when Congress is 
required by the Constitution to count the electoral votes for 
President and Vice-President of the United States and declare 
the result. 

The mode and manner of appointing electors is left by the 
Constitution to be determined by the States. The question as 
to who are electors must be determined by Congress. 

It is insisted by some of the gentlemen who have spoken on 
the Republican side that the States must determine who are 
electors, and that Congress cannot inquire into that question ; 
that, in the language of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 



APPENDIX G 327 

Lawrence), the action of the returning board is final and con- 
clusive and this house has no power or authority to change the 
result. And this view is also sustained by the gentleman from 
Maine (Mr. Frye), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Garfield), 
and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Kasson). 

I assume that in accordance with the unbroken line of 
precedents of ninety years, covering twent)^-two elections for 
President and Vice-President of the United States and the 
whole period of the constitutional government of the Union, 
Congress will count the electoral vote, that it will determine for 
itself who are electors and entitled to vote; and that for this 
purpose it will, if necessary, go behind the certificates of election 
and behind the action of returning boards to ascertain the will 
of the people as expressed by their votes. 

In the election of Mr. Monroe in 1817 Congress went behind 
the certificate of election, and the acts of the returning officers 
of the election in the State of Indiana, to determine whether the 
electoral vote of that State should be counted. In the election 
of Mr. Monroe in 1821 Congress went behind the certificate of 
election, and the action of the returning officers of the State of 
Missouri, to determine whether the electoral votes of that State 
should be counted. In the election of Mr. Van Buren in 1837 
Congress went behind the certificate of election, and the action 
of the returning officers of the State of Michigan, to determine 
whether the electoral votes of that State should be counted. 
And in that election a committee of three on the part of the 
Senate, consisting of Felix Grundy of Tennessee, Henry Clay 
of Kentucky, and Silas Wright of New York, in conjunction 
with a committee of five members of the House of Representa- 
tives, by order of the two Houses, went behind the certificates 
of election and behind the action of the returning officers of the 
States to ascertain whether electors had been chosen contrary to 
the prohibition contained in the second section of the second 
article of the Constitution. And that committee reported that 
they were "of opinion that the second section of the second 
article of the Constitution which declares that 'no Senator or 
Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit 
under the United States, shall be appointed an elector,' " ought 
to be carried in its whole spirit into rigid execution in order to 
prevent officers of the General Government from bringing their 
official power to influence the elections of President and Vice- 
President of the United States. This provision of the Constitu- 
tion, it is believed, excludes and disqualifies deputy postmasters 



328 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

from the appointment as electors, and the disquahfication relates 
to the time of the appointments, and that a resignation of the 
office of the deputy postmaster, after his appointment as elector, 
would not entitle him to vote as elector under the Constitution. 
And this opinion of these great Senators may be useful in our 
present troubles upon other questions than the one I am now 
considering. 

In the election of Mr. Buchanan in 1857 Congress went behind 
the certificate of election and the action of the returning officers 
of the State of Wisconsin to determine whether the electoral 
votes of that State should be counted. In the election of Mr. 
Lincoln in 1865, Congress, with large Republican majorities in 
both Houses, adopted the twenty-second joint rule for the gov- 
ernment of the two Houses in counting the electoral votes for 
President and Vice-President of the United States under which, 
in the election of that year, and in the election of General Grant 
in 1869, and again in 1873, Congress, upon deliberate considera- 
tion, went behind the certificates of election and the action of 
the returning officers of different States and excluded their 
electoral votes. And under this joint rule such electoral votes 
might be and were excluded by the objection of either House 
without the concurrence of the other. And if the law and facts 
require it to be done, I take it that the votes of States or of 
particular electors will be excluded by the objection of either 
House in this election, as they have been in past elections. 

On this question of the right of Congress "to exclude from 
counting all electoral votes deemed by them illegal," I will read 
the special message of President Lincoln of February 10, 1865. 
It is as follows : 

To The Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives : 

The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain States 
not entitled to representation in the electoral College" has been signed 
by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress implied in its 
passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, the two 
Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Consti- 
tution, have complete power to exclude from counting all electoral 
votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is not competent for rhe 
Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the 
case if his action were at all essential in the matter. He disclaims 
all right of the Executive to interfere, in any way in the matter of 
canvassing or counting electoral votes, and he also disclaims that by 
signing said resolution he has expressed any opinion on the recitals 
of the preamble or any judgment of his own upon the subject of the 

resolution. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

Executive INIansion, February 8, 1865. 



APPENDIX G 329 

Our friends on the Republican side show a new-born and 
wonderful zeal for the doctrine of States' Rights, which they 
have labored so earnestly for years to try to render odious. In 
great kindness and charity, I suggest to them that I know 
gentlemen in this country who some years back got into very 
serious trouble on account of their devotion to the doctrine of 
States' Rights. But I will express the hope that these gentlemen 
may be more fortunate. They manifest on this occasion a holy 
horror at the idea of the Federal Government interfering in 
elections in the States. And yet it is that party that introduced 
into the Constitution of the United States in the last few years, 
for the first time in the history of the Government, provisions 
in relation to the rights of citizens to vote in the States. It is 
that party which has in the last few years, for the first time in 
the history of the Government, passed elaborate acts of Congress 
to regulate and protect the rights of citizens to vote in the 
several States. It is that party which provided for and appoints 
supervisors of elections in the States of the Federal Government. 
It is that party which, by its Attorney-General, with the sanction 
of its President and his Cabinet, and with the approval of the 
Republicans of the Senate and this House, appoints an army of 
deputy marshals, to be paid out of the Federal Treasury, to 
manage and control elections in the States for the worst of 
partisan purposes ; and who, to this end, were authorized to use 
the Army of the United States in controlling such elections, 
without any demand by the States, as provided for in the Con- 
stitution, for such troops, and when there was no legitimate 
necessity for them. It is this party which, through its President, 
with the sanction of his Cabinet, and with approval of the 
Republican Senators, and members and Representatives, and of 
the great body of the party, openly employs the Army of the 
Unifed States to overthrow lawful civil State governments 
formed by the will of the people, and substitutes in their place 
other governments in the States which have no other authority 
for their existence than what is derived from military orders 
and the unlawful and unconstitutional use of the Army ; and 
which openly and notoriously uses the Army of the United 
States to overawe and intimidate the people and to carry elec- 
tions, both Federal and State. 

This is the party which has so holy a horror now of the mter- 
f erence of the Federal Government with elections in the States ; 
when, too, it is at this very moment using the Army of the 
United States to keep out of office governors and other State 



330 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

officers, State senators and representatives, and district and 
county officers in two States, which were elected by the people, 
and to put into their places by force and fraud those who were 
defeated by the people. 

When these gentlemen tell us that the work of the returning 
boards, such as that in Louisiana, are conclusive, and cannot be 
impeached or inquired into even for fraud, and for being in 
violation of law, do they forget that they have been, without 
objection or protest, trying cases of contested seats of members 
of this House from that State at every Congress since the dis- 
graceful election laws and infamous returning board of that 
State had an existence ; and that in each case they were going 
behind the action of this returning board, and treating it, as it 
ought to be treated, as furnishing by its action a prima facie 
case of election only, which may be rightfully inquired into by 
this House, and which has been so inquired into by this House, 
and the action of the Louisiana returning board set aside on 
different occasions, and the true result of the election by the 
people announced by this House? It is remarkable that these 
gentlemen cannot understand a principle which is as old as the 
law of elections, and firmly established by almost countless 
precedents, that an election by the people is determined by the 
votes of the people, and that the returns of the officers of such 
elections are only prima facie the evidence of an election, and 
may always be set aside for fraud or illegality, and the true 
result announced. Fraud always vitiates everything ; a solemn 
deed or the record of the highest court will be annulled, set aside, 
held for naught, if made or procured by fraud. 

The committee in the report under consideration say in sub- 
stance that public rumor charges fraud in the Louisiana election. 
It is proposed to investigate this fraud. We know from news- 
paper reports, and from the statements of both citizens and 
officers, that a Democratic majority of more than 8,000 has been 
by that returning board converted into a Republican majority of 
more than 3,000. We wish to know just how this was done; 
and the whole country wishes to know how it was done, and 
has a right to know how it was done, as it may determine the 
result of the election of President and Vice-President of the 
United States. 

And yet Republican members on this floor, — representatives 
of a part of the American people, — distinguished for their 
ability and public experience, tell us that even if this returning 
board has been guilty of fraud and of unlawful conduct, though 



APPENDIX G 331 

it may be leprous with fraud, a stench in the nostrils of all 
honest men, and a hissing and by-word throughout Christendom, 
still its frauds are so sacred, so inviolable, so beyond the reach 
of honest men, good morals, and sound principles of law, that it 
must outweigh the honest votes of more than four millions of 
freemen in a Government created, upheld, and perpetuated so 
far by public opinion, as made known through the lawful votes 
of the people, as contradistinguished from a government created, 
upheld, and perpetuated by either force or fraud. 

This position is so monstrous that I am persuaded gentlemen 
who are driven into it by partisan heat or supposed political 
exigencies will, in after and calmer times, be amazed that they 
should have avowed such doctrines. 

The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Kasson) and several of his 
brethren have made or attempted to make the issue that we 
could not go into the States and seize State officers, acting under 
State laws, and State records and bring them before this House 
or its committee, without violating the Constitution and tramp- 
ling down State rights. I suggest that such an issue is not 
presented by the report before us, and that therefore we need 
not discuss or decide it. The duty is devolved on Congress to 
count the electoral votes for President and Vice-President of 
the United States. Our authority to do so is derived from the 
Constitution of the United States. And these are the higher 
officers of the Government of the United States. They are not 
State officers. We are not State officers. The only warrant 
for our action is that Constitution. In the performance of this 
great duty are we to accept fraudulent and illegal acts of a 
returning board whose infamy is both national and world-wide, 
without inquiry as binding on us? Or are we to inquire for 
the very truth ? The common-sense, natural, reasonable Ameri- 
can way is to inquire for the very truth. To do this we must 
authorize our committee to purge the consciences of the members 
of that board, and to examine the poll-books, returns, etc., on 
which their action was based, and whether that action was in 
accordance with law and is sustained by the facts. That board 
not only spirited away a Democratic majority of over eight 
thousand and gave to their party a majority ^of over ^three 
thousand, but their final and most important action in doing it 
was in secret. The law of their existence required that the 
board should be composed of members of all political parties. 
It should have consisted of five members ; but in fact did only 
have four members, and these were all Republicans. They were 



332 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

applied to repeatedly to fill the vacancy by the appointment of a 
Democrat, which they refused to do, under the sham pretense 
that they were equally divided on the question as to whether 
they should fill it. It looks like they had determined to 
perpetrate a great fraud, and resorted to subterfuge and trick 
to prevent any Democrat from witnessing and exposing that 
fraud. 

The gentlemen who take this extraordinary position as to the 
sanctity and sacredness of the acts of a fraudulent returning 
board seem to lose their reckoning in many respects. Suppose 
two returns come from one State, — and we are advised that 
there will be duplicate returns from four or five States in this 
election, — we must use our judgment and discretion, we must 
determine, decide in each case which is the true and proper 
return, which contains the true vote of the people and is 
presented by the proper electors, and with the proper authenti- 
cation. We must, if necessary, go behind the returns them- 
selves, and behind the action of the returning officers, to deter- 
mine this. So returns may be made, as in the election of Mr. 
Van Buren in 1837, of persons who appear to have been elected 
as electors but who are ineligible ; and we may now as then have 
to go behind the returns to determine this, and to prevent 
persons from voting for President and Vice-President who are 
not permitted by the Constitution to be electors. 

But I will not multiply the instances in which, from the very 
necessity of the case, we may have to go behind the returns and 
behind the action of returning boards in the discharge of the 
high duty we owe to the whole people to see honestly and fairly 
that those elected by them shall be declared by us to have been 
elected. And no fraud, no illegality, no trick or subterfuge 
must stand in the way of common honesty, plain duty, and 
obedience to law in this respect. We want the truth and the 
whole truth about this election. This cannot be reached without 
compelling the witnesses named to testify and to produce their 
records and books for inspection of the committee. I do not 
doubt our jurisdiction for this purpose. Surely this great body, 
clothed with jurisdiction over this subject, has as much power 
to compel witnesses to testify and to produce papers as a district 
or county court in one of the States or Territories or of the 
District of Columbia. 

But it is insisted that villainy has invented a contrivance in 
Louisiana which not only sanctifies fraud and illegality, but 
binds our consciences, and defies our authority and powers in 



APPENDIX G 333 

counting and declaring the result of the electoral vote. It is 
said the legislature of that State has clothed the board with all 
judicial powers, and has declared its action binding and final 
on all elections. I must insist that in common justice and by 
all law it is only binding and final when it is in accordance with 
law and is free from fraud. Its action is not and cannot be 
more binding, final, and conclusive than a decision of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and even a judgment of 
that august tribunal would be set aside and annulled if after it 
is made it should be found that the court had no jurisdiction of 
the case, or that its judgment had been obtained by fraud, or 
had been the result of accident or mistake. The law makes the 
judgments and decrees of this great court final and conclusive 
as to the parties to the litigation, and they may be set aside, 
annulled, for fraud or want of jurisdiction; but yet we are 
gravely asked to agree that the doings of this fraudulent return- 
ing board, under a law which was designed as a cheat and 
swindle, has more sanctity than such a judgment or decree. 
Can folly go further or presumption become more audacious 
than this? 



APPENDIX H 

During the consideration of the bill of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, No. 514, relating to the celebration of American 
Independence, January 19, 1876, Congressional Record, pp. 
507-8, I submitted the following remarks : 

Mr. Reagan. Mr. Chairman, it was not my intention until 
yesterday to participate in any way in this debate. In what I 
shall have to say I do not propose to controvert the views pre- 
sented by any member who has preceded me in this discussion. 
Nor do I propose to look at anything in the light of a partisan, 
but simply as representing a part of the American people. If 
in these remarks I touch incidentally on any question which 
might seem inappropriate to the occasion, before concluding 
the few observations which I have to make it will be seen that 
it is for no purpose of unkindness but for the purpose of illus- 
trating the views I present, and the position in which I find 
myself in this connection. 

In determining to vote for the centennial bill, I am confronted 
by considerations well calculated to produce embarrassment, 
and which may not be realized by gentlemen differently situated. 
Those may well rejoice who are free, and prosperous, and happy, 
and those who are weighed down with poverty, suffering from 
proscription, while remaining under the displeasure of the Gov- 
ernment, can but mourn over their condition and hope for a 
better future. 

We have among us soldiers of the war of 1812, heroes of our 
second war for independence, who fought the battles of our 
country before many of us were born, and who are now tottering 
into the grave, and who are not permitted to draw their pensions 
because they may have sympathized with the South in the recent 
civil war, though then too old to participate in it. We have 
public contractors who carried the mails and did other service 
for the Government before the war, who, for the same reason, 
are refused compensation. And we still have a few hundred 
men, and these for the most part the best, the wisest, and most 
conservative, who are denied some of the rights of American 
citizenship. 



APPENDIX H 335 

These classes, while they may rejoice at every step toward 
peace and reconciliation, must still feel that they are precluded 
from participation in the feelings of universal joy which should 
characterize the year and the occasion ; that there is no year of 
peace and jubilee with them. I do not say these things in a 
querulous spirit, but rather with a painful sense that duty 
requires that they should be said. 

But looking to other and broader considerations, and desiring 
to reflect the wishes of the great body of the people I represent, 
in favor of charity and good will between the people of all parts 
of the country, and in the hope that fuller justice will be done 
the classes I have referred to in the future, and to avoid the 
suspicion that the people I represent are still hostile to the 
Government, and especially because I believe the year and the 
occasion can be made to subserve the noble purpose of 
reunifying the American people, of creating anew the feelings 
of patriotism common to the whole country, so that the whole 
people can participate in the blessings of liberty, in the expense 
of preserving it, in the perils if need be, of defending it, as one 
common brotherhood, as our people were in former years. 

The Southern people are peculiarly interested in the events 
of this year. A great and protracted civil war, with the long 
controversy which led to it, and a system of what was called 
reconstruction measures, as disastrous to them as the war itself, 
have so wrenched and distorted the Constitution, and obscured 
the principles of civil liberty and just government, as to make 
a serious and earnest recurrence to the principles of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, of the Constitution of the United States, 
and of the spirit and genius of our Government and institutions, 
a paramount necessity. This, it seems to me, is the most vital 
thought connected wath the centennial celebration to every part 
of the country and to all the people. 

I feel that I represent truly the wishes and the interests of 
those who sent me here by showing by this vote that we at least 
can forgive in our sufferings and sorrows, if others cannot in 
their triumphs and prosperity. And in this vote I give one of 
the best pledges I can of the desire of our people to be restored 
to their proper place in the Union, to participate in its prosperity, 
to enjoy the blessings common to all others in it, and share in 
its glories. 

It is wonderful to contemplate the progress of our country 
and the world during the past century. The invention and 
successful use of various labor-saving machines, the application 



336 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

of steam and electricity to the practical uses of life, the improve- 
ments in chemistry and in the mechanic arts, the discovery and 
application of new principles in philosophy and science, have 
gone beyond what could have been dreamed of by our revolu- 
tionary sires. The diffusion of knowledge which has been 
brought about by the high perfection of the art of printing and 
by the improved facilities for printing books and newspapers, 
the rapid transmission of intelligence by mails and telegraph, 
and the facilities for rapid communication by steam vessels and 
railroads have created a new world, and have done much toward 
making all useful knov/ledge common to the human family, 
while our progress in agriculture, in manufacturing, and in 
commerce is the wonder of mankind. 

A hundred years ago we had but a little over three millions of 
population. Now we have forty millions. Then our settle- 
ments were limited to the country east of the Alleehany ]\Ioun- 
tains and to a few settlers in the Ohio Valley. Now they extend 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and from the Great Lakes 
to the Rio Grande. Then that vast region of country west of 
the Alleghany Mountains, and especially west of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers, was almost an unknown wilderness to our 
ancestors, the hunting ground of the savage Indian tribes. 
Now our settlements dot it all over, our armies patrol the whole 
of our frontier regions, mails carry the news, social and business 
intelligence to every part of the country, and our seventy-two 
thousand miles of railroad span the continent and furnish the 
means of the most rapid travel and transportation to nearly all 
parts of the Republic. These things, this wonderful advance- 
ment in material progress and development, are certainly worthy 
of commemoration at the end of the first hundred years of our 
political existence as a people. But I do not mention them so 
much for that purpose as to state by contrast that we have 
something still more worthy of commemoration. 

A hundred years ago the received political theory of the great 
powers of the earth was that the kings and emperors ruled the 
people by some sort of right superior to any which could spring 
from themselves ; that the body of the people were incapable of 
self-government, of preserving political authority and public 
order and the rights of persons and of property if left to them- 
selves ; that they must be governed by a higher authority than 
they possessed; that they were subjects as contradistinguished 
from citizens ; that they must be ruled by power, force, repres- 
sion, instead of by their voluntary consent. 



APPENDIX H 337 

Privileged orders in society, embracing kings and nobles, 
were necessary to support this theory. The splendid, titled, 
gilded few, the oppressed and toiling many, with despotism, 
oppression, and wrongs in all their forms, were its necessary 
fruits. 

The Declaration of Independence of the 4th of July, 1776, 
was the brave, bold, clear, ringing announcement, by earnest, 
thoughtful, wise men, of a political theory which, if not new to 
the world, was new in its practical application, as furnishing the 
political rules for the preservation of the rights and liberties of 
a whole people. 

In that, man's capacity for self-government was announced 
as a political axiom. All titles of nobility and exclusive priv- 
ileges were declared at an end. A government resting on the 
free voluntary consent of the people was proclaimed. Political 
sovereignty was declared to reside in the people. Following 
these declarations, a system of government, State and Federal, 
was adopted which secured to our people all the bulwarks of 
civil liberty reserved out of the powers of the governments 
which they formed for themselves. 

No Congress or legislature, no President or Governor, no 
judge of a Federal or State court, no officer of the Army or 
Navy, was allowed to invade or disregard the rights of the 
humblest citizen. No citizen could be arrested by arbitrary 
power, but only upon an affidavit charging an offense against 
the law, and upon a lawful warrant, and by a person authorized 
by law to execute it. And any citizen so arrested was entitled 
to a speedy public trial ; to be heard by himself, or counsel in 
his defense ; to be confronted by the witnesses against him, and 
to have compulsory process to obtain witnesses in his favor ; to 
a fair trial by a jury of his peers; with the military declared 
subordinate to the civil authority, and the inestimable right of 
the writ of habeas corpus declared inviolate; the duties of all 
public officers defined by the Constitution and laws, and they 
held amenable for any infraction of them, as strictly as the most 
humble citizen in the walks of private life; no man, in whatso- 
ever position, was above the law; and all were under the segis 
of its protection. These were among its beneficent, its heaven- 
born provisions. It was, in brief, the establishment of a govern- 
ment founded on the authority of the people, and made by them 
for their own benefit. It was a grand political experiment, 
scoffed at and derided by the friends of royalty and aristocracy 
as the inauguration of organized anarchy, but now vindicated 



338 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

by a hundred years of experience in peace and war, and under 
all the vicissitudes to which governments are exposed, as the 
best system of government ever devised by the wisdom of man, 
illustrated by the most wonderful growth and development of 
any known to the history of the world. 

It is to these immortal, undying principles, to this peculiarly 
American federal system of government, uniting many nations 
in one, and so dividing their powers as to leave national and 
international matters to the Federal Government, and local 
matters to the several States, that we are indebted for all we 
are as a people ; for all our great growth in population, in wealth, 
in power, in material development, in liberty, and in the happi- 
ness of our people. 

The preservation of these principles and this system is, in my 
judgment, the sole condition on which the Republic can be made 
to survive to another and other centennial years. God grant 
they may be preserved to bless a thousand other generations. 

If these propositions are true, — and who is there that will 
question their truth? — then the chief merit of the centennial 
celebration should be made to consist in asserting anew these 
great principles of this system, and in contributing our part to 
transmit them to our posterity as we received them from our 
revolutionary fathers. 

Let us in this centennial year honor these as the cause of our 
growth, prosperity, power and greatness in a higher degree than 
we may our material development, which is but the fruit that 
they have borne. And let us re-embalm the memories of the 
great and good men who gave this political system to us and to 
the world. 

I would in conclusion add the expression of one hope, of one 
prayer, humbly and earnestly, and that is that some good spirit 
may so direct the action of this Congress that on the 4th day of 
next July every citizen in this Republic may be as free as 
American citizens were intended to be made by the Declaration 
of Independence, and possessed of all the rights which the Con- 
stitution and the laws secure to any. 

I beg to call the attention of the committee to the fact that 
Great Britain, against whom our fathers rebelled, forgetting 
what she lost in the war of the Revolution, and by our success, 
and guided alike by wise statesmanship and Christian charity, 
will be here to do honor to the occasion. Shall it be our own 
people alone, on this great festival of freedom, to whom the 
assembled representatives of all nations on that day shall point 



APPENDIX H 339 

as being so lacking in charity and wisdom as to make a few 
hundred out of so many millions feel the bitter anguish which 
must follow a denial to them of the rights of citizenship? Let 
us make this year a centennial and a jubilee together. 



APPENDIX I 

Mr. Reagan. Mr. President, before the Senate proceeds 
with the disposition of the amendments to the bill under consid- 
eration, I desire to say a few words in reference to the position 
assumed yesterday by the distinguished senior Senator from 
New York [Mr. Evarts]. 

I preface what I have to say by remarking that if we accept 
his hypothesis, if we accept his theory — he is able and he is a 
good logician — it would be difficult to answer his arguments. 
He made a very forceful and impressive argument in favor of 
law, of the paramount importance of obedience to the law, and 
of respect for the Constitution. He insisted that it was the 
duty of all good citizens to obey the Constitution and the laws. 
I mean this was the substance of his position. In discussing 
such a question with so great a lawyer as the Senator from New 
York one should be very sure of the ground he proposes to 
occupy. 

I take it that that Senator has no greater desire to see the 
Constitution of the United States upheld and the laws of the 
land faithfully enforced than every other Senator on this side 
of the Chamber or on that. It is doubtless the conviction of 
that Senator that he is right in his assumption that he is serving 
the public in urging obedience to the law and in urging the 
passage of this bill. My objection to the bill is that it is itself a 
violation of the fundamental law of the land and that in urging 
its passage the appeal is made to the Senate of the United States 
to violate that very Constitution which we all have taken an oath 
to support. I know Senators will reply that the Constitution 
gives to Congress the power to regulate "the time, places, and 
manner of holding elections." The provisions of our Consti- 
tution are that : 

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and 
Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature 
thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the place of choosing Senators. 



APPENDIX I 341 

In any interpretation of this provision we see that primarily 
the power of the regulation of the times, places, and manner of 
holding elections is to be prescribed by the States. Then, when 
it is said in the same paragraph that "Congress may at any time 
by law make or alter such regulations," we must of necessity 
inquire how it came that the learned, the able, the patriotic men 
who framed that clause of the Constitution put two provisions 
in that paragraph, seemingly in conflict with each other, for they 
are in conflict with each other, and I venture the statement, and 
I belie\'e I have made it before, that there is no other provision 
of the Constitution of the United States of double and doubtful 
construction like this. If this question, therefore, were before 
a court for construction of this provision, the inquiry would be 
instituted, how came it that these conflicting provisions were 
inserted in the same clause of the Constitution ? 

If the Senators would turn to the debates of the convention 
which formed that Constitution and to its journals they would 
find reason why the two powers were placed as they are in that 
clause. It would there be seen that it was intended to give the 
States control over the elections primarily, and the debates 
would show further that the question arose as to whether the 
States might not decline to elect Senators and Representatives, 
and by such declination dissolve the Union or separate them- 
selves from it, withdraw from its authority. 

The thought was doubtless prompted by the historical fact 
that some of the States were very slow, very tardy in sending 
their Representatives to the Continental Congress, and the busi- 
ness on that account was retarded and the powers of Congress 
were interfered with to some extent by the neglect of the States 
to be promptly represented in that Congress. That being so, 
not looking to what might occur in the future, which has actually 
occurred and which is known to us now, but looking to the 
experience of the past, the Congress thought it best to make 
provisions primarily that the States should control these elec- 
tions, and secondarily, if the States failed to provide for the 
election of Senators and Representatives, the power should be 
conferred upon Congress to enable the Government to perpetuate 
itself. 

That is the line of the argument which is presented in the 
debate in the convention. That is what the commentators on 
the Constitution of the United States give as the history of the 
insertion of that provision. 



342 . MEMOIRS BY JOHN H, REAGAN 

If that be accepted, I appeal to all fair-minded men who seek 
to give the Constitution a fair and reasonable interpretation, that 
they must concede we have no power and that Congress has no 
right to provide for the election of Representatives and Senators 
so long as the States make provision for their election, and they 
are in the service and in the discharge of their duties in the two 
Houses of Congress. 

If they are there, that is all that the Constitution contemplates. 
It was to secure that end that that provision was alternatively 
inserted in the Constitution of the United States. So I repeat 
what I have said before, when the States have provided by law 
for the election of their Senators and Representatives and those 
Senators and Representatives are in discharge of their duties in 
their places in Congress, Congress has no more right to usurp 
the powers of the States and attempt to discharge the duties of 
the States than if that provision had not been inserted in the 
Constitution at all. 

Mr. President, I suppose, however, that it is not very useful 
to undertake to argue a question of constitutional right and 
propriety. It is hard to say that in the Senate of the United 
States, but the idea has become so prevalent that the war has 
revised the Constitution and substantially obliterated the rights 
of the States that we have two sets of opinions in this country 
upon that subject; but the Constitution stands as it did, except 
as to the amendments which have been engrafted upon it. Its 
interpretation stands to-day as it did aforetime, except as it is 
qualified by the amendments to it which have been adopted. 
None of these amendments,,)- .taken away the tenth amend- 
ment of tl^. "^ ■"^'/■itjition, a^^pted a year or two after the Con- 
stitution its. v. was adopted, in which it was declared that, 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, or to the 
people. 

When we go to the Constittition for this power, we find it in 
the clause which I have referred to, and upon a just interpre- 
tation, upon a reasonable interpretation, I insist that we are not 
authorized to provide for the election of Senators and Repre- 
sentatives to Congress when the States have made full and 
ample provisions for that purpose and when those Senators and 
those Representatives are in the discharge of their duties in the 
respective Houses. 



APPENDIX I 343 

Besides this, Mr. President, all persons must see that two 
systems of laws providing regulations for the same elections 
must produce jarring, inconvenience, and confusion. I know 
that it has been said by the Supreme Court that if there is a 
conflict the laws of the States must yield to those of the Union. 
I am not going to comment upon that decision of the Supreme 
Court to-night. It is not necessary in the line of argument 
which I have in view. 

A very grave consideration follows. We cannot too often 
recur to the fact that our system of free constitutional govern- 
ment rests upon two principles, the sovereignty of the people 
and their capacity for self-government. It is these which 
distinguish our system of government from the systems of 
monarchies which prevail in other parts of the world. Under 
those systems it is held that sovereignty resides in the governing 
power; whether it be king, emperor, or parliament, whatever 
the ruling power may be, the sovereignty resides there ; that the 
people are subjects, that they must be governed by a power 
superior to themselves, because they are incapable of self- 
government ; they must be governed by a power capable by 
repression, by coercion, of preserving peace and order in society 
and the rights of person and property to citizens. 

In the formation of our Government the great experiment 
was entered upon of trusting the formation of the Government 
to the people themselves. To that end it was held that they 
were sovereign, that they^ were the government-making power, 
that they had intelligence enough to enable them to oreanize 
governments, to enact laws thr ' the proper aofencies, to 
interpret laws through the proper agencies, to au :er laws 

and to enforce laws through the proper agencies ; and for more 
than one hundred years of peace and war the people of these 
United States have vindicated the justice and the wisdom of the 
men who assumed that they were sovereign, and that they had 
virtue and intelligence enough to organize and administer 
governments such as would preserve order and peace and the 
rights of person and property. 

Mr. President, in the face of that. Senators propose to enact 
a law which assumes the fact that the people of the States of 
this Union are no longer capable of self-government, for, if they 
are capable of self-government, they may proceed as they have 
heretofore proceeded by enacting all the laws necessary to the 
public welfare, and amongst those the laws which enable them 
to elect their Representatives and Senators. 



344 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

Are we prepared to take that step? Are we prepared to say 
to the American people that the people of this great, grand 
RepubHc are no longer to be trusted with the rights of self- 
government ? Are we to say that they have to be governed by 
agencies from without, by a power from without superior to 
themselves? If we say that we abandon the foundation prin- 
ciples of our Government, we repudiate the capacity of the 
people for self-government, we deny their right of self-govern- 
ment, principles as sacred as liberty itself to all true Americans. 

If we are to assume that the people are no longer capable of 
self-government, by whom are they to be governed ? We have 
no royalty here yet, thank God ; we have no legal aristocracy 
here yet, thank God. Though we have a strongly intrenched 
moneyed aristocracy, we have no hereditary governing class 
here as yet. Who, then, are they, of superior wisdom and of 
superior virtue, who are to rule the people of the several States, 
who are to enact laws for them, hold elections for them, because 
they are no longer qualified to enact laws and enforce them for 
the election of their Representatives to Congress? Where are 
they to come from ? 

They must be a portion of this very class of people who, by 
the theory of this bill, are held to be incapable of self-govern- 
ment. They must come from the States of this country. What, 
then, is to endow them with superior wisdom and virtue as 
Federal officers which it is assumed they will not have as State 
officers? Whence comes this superior wisdom? How is it 
that a Federal law or a Federal commission is to make men 
wiser and to make them better than when they are invested with 
authority by the people themselves in the exercise of their own 
sovereign rights ? Are they to be more virtuous and more wise 
because they are selected by some one not responsible to the 
people ? The whole theory seems to me to be not only absurd, 
but appalling to the friends of liberty and to the friends of con- 
stitutional government. 

The difficulty which we encounter is that Senators, like the 
great Senator from New York (Mr. Evarts) yesterday and like 
the distinguished Senator from Rhode Inland (Mr. Dixon) 
to-night, assume that the American people is one great aggrega- 
tion, to be operated upon by acts of Congress as if there were no 
Constitution, no States, no State boundaries, no State laws, no 
State rights. It is the assumption that the Congress is respon- 
sible for the morals, the habits, the individual conduct of citizens 
of the United States. 



APPENDIX I 345 

Why, sir, there are long lines of decisions made by the 
Supreme Court of the United States showing- that the individual 
in the State is responsible to his State for the violation of the 
laws of his State, and that neither Congress nor the Federal 
Courts can take jurisdiction of him, and yet we disregard all 
that and assume here, by the theory of this bill and by the argu- 
ments of distinguished Senators, that the American people is 
one great mass to be influenced and controlled by acts of Con- 
gress, and that Congress must take cognizance of the violation 
of morals and law in the several States. That is the theory. 
The theory is one which has been exploded over and over again 
by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is one that is 
repugnant to our common sense of right and propriety. It is 
one that denies the right and capacity of the people to govern 
themselves. 

Mr. President, many crimes are committed in all the States 
of this Union. Murder is committed, arson, robbery, all the 
crimes in the catalogue. Interference with the elective fran- 
chise, bribery, and corruption in elections occur in every State 
in this Union, and if the theory of this bill is right the State 
should be wiped out and Congress should provide for the pun- 
ishment of those offenses, and yet Congress, I suppose, would 
hesitate to take that last step. 

If Senators could get their consent to recognize the Constitu- 
tion which they talk so much about, to recognize its limitations, 
to obey its commands, and if in doing this they could forget that 
they have political and party ends to accomplish by violating 
the Constitution, we should be in very much safer condition than 
I feel the American people are to-night. 

Political majorities may change, and if I do not mistake the 
character of the American people, bills like this if enacted into 
law will produce one of those changes such as was produced on 
a similar subject ninety years ago. The Federalists, under the 
leader of the extreme consolidationists, chose to enact what is 
known in the history of our Government as the Alien and Sedi- 
tion Laws, interfering with the freedom of speech, interfering 
with the liberty of the citizen, and in instances denying him the 
right of trial by jury before whom his rights ought to be 
determined. 

That act of attempting to overthrow our system which recog- 
nized the capacity of the people for self-government and their 
sovereigntv caused the burial in the tomb of the Capulets of 
the partv which enacted it, to be no more resurrected by the 



346 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

name of Federalist. Though that attempt to subordinate the 
liberties of the people to the purposes of power, consolidation^ 
and usurpation overthrew that party, Senators at this day refuse 
to accept its warning, to recognize its force, and now measures 
looking to the consolidation and centralization of all power 
in the Federal Government have gone far beyond what Ham- 
ilton, the Adamses, Knox, or any Federalist of that time ever 
dreamed of. 

Why, sir, the very atmosphere is permeated with the ideas of 
consolidation and of centralization to such an extent that it is 
hardly considered respectable to appeal to the rights of the 
States and the liberty of the citizen as in contrast with the 
powers of the Federal Government. It may go that way, Mr. 
President ; it may grow worse, but while I am spared to live, 
whether in public or in private life, I do not propose to abandon 
the great underlying principles of our Government, and hence 
to sacrifice the liberties of the American people and the rights 
of American States to promote the fortunes of any party, much 
less a party which has iDeen so overwhelmingly and instinctively 
repudiated by the American people at a very recent day. But 
that warning voice seems not to be heard, and one listening to 
the debates in this body has his mind involuntarily turned to 
what Napoleon said of the Bourbons, that they never forgot and 
never learned anything. 

Senators go on here arguing in the same set phrase that they 
did fifteen years ago, when the Republicans of New England 
were controlling this continent ; when all the powers of the Gov- 
ernment were subordinated to their fortunes ; when they held 
absolute political power. Some of them — one venerable Senator 
whom we all respect, but whom I will not now name, evidently 
has no conception of the march of events, of a change of convic- 
tion, of the determination of the people to resume the control of 
their own government, to resume control of their own interests, 
to defy monopoly, to strike down class legislation, to resume 
again the government that will protect all alike and give special 
and exclusive privileges to none. 

The people mean this, but Senators do not seem to understand 
it. It seems that they cannot realize this fact. I notice another 
venerable Senator, whom I will not now name, who knows 
enough of events now transpiring to irritate him when he sees 
the grip upon power falling away. Senators may as well under- 
stand that the star of empire is on its way westward, that no 
section of the country, that no half-dozen States are any longer 



APPENDIX I 347 

to control the destinies of this great RepubHc. These forty- 
four States have now and are in the future to have a voice in its 
affairs, in the shaping of its legislation, in the direction of its 
policy, in procuring justice to the people, in striking down the 
power which has been oppressing them. 

Mr. Hoar. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question ? 

Mr. Reagan. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Hoar. The Senator has been in the minority in this 
country for twenty-five years. Did he abandon his political 
principles or any of them in consequence of that? 

Mr. Reagan. I do not know that I understand the Senator's 
question. 

Mr. Hoar. The Senator has commented on the fact that 
certain Senators, as he says, do not heed the warning of a recent 
election. The question I put to him is this : He has been in a 
political minority in this country for twenty-five years. Did he 
change his political principles or any of them for that reason ? 

Mr. Reagan. Well, I have not been in the minority for all 
of the twenty-five years. (Laughter.) I have never been the 
advocate or promoter of monopoly. I have never been the 
advocate or promoter of centralization. I have never been the 
advocate or promoter of injustice and oppression. I have advo- 
cated what I have understood to be the constitutional rules of 
right, and I have had no occasion to change my principles. I 
was trying to present the view that there were Senators upon 
this floor who have occasion to change their action and their 
principles if they mean to keep in line with the great march of 
American intelligence and independence. 

When Senators in the name of law and in the name of our 
Constitution appeal to us to violate the Constitution, to trample 
upon the rights of the States, to deny the capacity of the people 
for self-government, and to deny the sovereignty of the people, 
ask us to assent that there is a sovereignty outside of and above 
them which must deal with them, it seems to me that we may 
well reply to them, before they upbraid us for a violation of the 
Constitution or a disregard of law, to take the beam out of their 
own eyes before they hunt for the mote in ours. 

It is assumed that there have been violations of law in the 
suppression of the right of certain people to vote and a denial of 
the right to vote, ft is unfortunately true that in one way or 
another, sometimes by force, sometimes by fraud, sometimes by 
bribery in every State in this Union, the elective franchise has 
been interfered with. It may be that there have been more 
disturbances on this subject in the Southern States than in other 
States. 



348 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAN 

If there have been, it is because the circumstances in which 
they are placed are different from the circumstances in which 
the people of the other States find themselves. It is because 
for political purposes the right of suffrage was conferred upon 
a people not capable, as a general rule, of exercising that right. 
That fact was known when the act was done. It was recognized 
by the great leaders of the Republican party. Mr. Morton and 
other distinguished Republicans assumed and declared that the 
black people were incapable of intelligently exercising the 
elective franchise. I refer not to our respected President of 
the Senate, but to the late Senator from Indiana. In a political 
exigency, in the face of law and knowledge the great wrong was 
done of conferring the elective franchise upon a people the great 
mass of whom had no capacity for the intelligent exercise of 
that right, the great mass of whom did not know what the 
functions of public officers were and had no conception of the 
qualities necessary to enable persons to discharge the functions 
of those offices. 

That being done, the people of the South who had thrust upon 
them a large mass of ignorant voters had the most serious and 
most dangerous problem that ever fell upon a civilized and 
enlightened people to contend with, and they ought to have had 
the sympathy, the encouragement, and the support of their 
brethren elsewhere to solve that problem in the interests of 
civilization and of right. Instead of that, Mr. President, laws 
were passed which took from a very large class of the white 
people there even the right to vote. They could neither hold 
office nor vote. 

At the same time military governments were erected and the 
writ of habeas corpus was struck down. Military orders were 
sufficient to authorize an arrest without warrant. Without a 
writ and without an assigned cause citizens were arrested and 
held indefinitely in prison. While this was going on, a set of 
men, such as may God protect the world from in any future time 
or place, followed the Army, and they with some revenue 
officers and military officers organized a system of what they 
called loyal leagues, a secret system in which the negroes were 
instructed that the white people were their enemies, in which 
the negroes were banded together in hostility to the whites and 
made to fear that the whites would re-enslave them, when all 
intelligent people knew that the day of their slavery had gone by. 

They did everything they could to embitter the feehngs 
between the whites and the blacks, and they succeeded. At that 



APPENDIX I 349 

time the white people had been overthrown in battle. Tens of 
thousands of their bravest and best men slept upon the field of 
honor where there was no waking. Society was broken up ; the 
industrial system of the whole country was overturned ; the 
means of the people had been exhausted in the war ; they were 
trampled under foot ; they were disfranchised ; they were denied 
the protection of the law, and the black people who lived 
amongst them were encouraged to distrust and hate them. 

Mr. President, it was a hard thing, and I have thought, and 
I think to-night, the most surprising of all the things connected 
with the events of that time was that a people so circumstanced, 
environed by such calamities, such powers, such danger, was 
able to preserve organized society, to reorganize their industries, 
to organize their governments, and to establish liberty again 
upon its old basis of obedience to the constitutions and laws of 
the States and of the United States. 

I think, sir, that no part of the human race will ever be entitled 
to higher honors than that portion of the white race of the 
Southern States which, under such circumstances, restored so- 
ciety and government when it was supposed to be to the political 
interests of the dominant party in the country to force them to 
abandon their principles and join a new party or submit to 
despotism. 

Why, sir, it is well known that there was no man of any 
respectability in that country during those days who could not 
have had an office if he would have sacrificed his manhood, 
surrendered his honor, and been willing to accept office and 
emoluments instead of preserving his manhood and vindicating 
the great character of an American citizen. We know that. 
That being put upon us, violence did arise, acts of violence v^-erc 
committed, and no doubt acts of fraud have been committed. 

But, Mr. President, what I wish to say in connection with 
that is that year by year, as the blacks have learned, step by 
step, that the white people were not their enemies, but were 
their friends ; as they have learned to unlearn the bad lessons 
that carpetbaggers taught them, race conflicts have subsided, 
conflicts of interests have subsided, conflicts of opinion have 
subsided, and year by year there has been less and less violence, 
until in the election of last November, when members of Con- 
gress were to be elected, governors of States, members of State 
legislatures, the elections were quiet and as peaceable in the 
Southern States as they were elsewhere; and if you would let 
the people there alone we need not ask other help. I see ^the 
Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Spooner) smiles when I say "let 
them alone." Very well. "Nero fiddled when Rome burned." 



350 MEMOIRS BY JOHN H. REAGAX 

If they would allow us to proceed it would be but a short time 
until what is called the "race problem," in my opinion, would 
settle itself. We have a great many doctrinaires who have been 
propounding theories for settling the race problem. The wisest 
theory upon that subject is for a man to attend to his own busi- 
ness and let the race problem alone. Let the people who have 
an interdependence upon each other, whites and blacks, cultivate 
that interdependence. The people there know, as well as the 
people elsewhere know, the necessity for obedience to law ; they 
know there as well as elsewhere the necessity for preserving 
sound morals, a respect for the law, and authority of the courts 
and of the Constitution. 

They are as anxious as people can be anywhere else that extra- 
ordinary exigencies such as never have attended the human race 
elsewhere — for such a problem never fell upon the human race 
elsewhere that I know of — should be justly solved. These 
exigencies caused attrition and trouble, but that is passing away 
year by year. Let us hope that this Government may be per- 
mitted to go on as it has in the past, that its people may be 
allowed to exercise the right which they have for more than a 
hundred years enjoyed here, that they may be trusted to carry 
on their State governments, and that they may not be held 
incapable of doing so. 

Mr. President, suppose we do this, suppose we strike down 
the rights of the States, deny the sovereignty of the people, will 
we not have inflicted upon the whole American people a deadly 
wound, and upon the Constitution an evil infinitely greater than 
any local disturbance between whites and blacks or other kinds 
of people in any other part of the country ? Is that to be over- 
looked? Are political exigencies to induce us to commit a 
greater crime than has ever been committed in local communities 
with reference to the right of suffrage by striking down the 
sovereignty of the States and of the people? It seems to me 
that we are in danger of committing the crime of crimes. 

This Government is but a hundred years old, and yet it has 
come to be a recognized fact that money is controlling popular 
elections. It is alleged that members of Congress are elected 
by money. It is even insisted that a President has been elected 
by money. However this may be, the fact that money is recog- 
nized as an agency in elections by all political parties in this 
country is a palpable and it is a mournful fact. Rome held the 
name of a Republic for three hundred years after liberty was 
dead and despotism was enthroned. 



APPENDIX I 351 

They reached the point where the government was put up for 
sale to the highest bidder. I trust we are not to have our hired 
legions to take charge of this Government through the instru- 
mentality of money. If we would avoid that, we must respect 
the Constitution, we must prevent and punish the use of cor- 
rupting means in all elections everywhere, but not through acts 
of Congress. Leave the several States of this Union to do that, 
and they will do it. They have encountered troubles. To-day, 
sir, in New Hampshire, in Nebraska, in Minnesota, in Colorado, 
in New Jersey, I believe, and in Connecticut, they « are having 
political troubles. Are you going to pass a law of Congress to 
cure these troubles ? I pray you, Mr. President, that that may 
not be done. Leave it to those people, and they will correct 
their own troubles. They will restore good and constitutional 
government in due time. 

It seems to me that we have reached a time where the public 
mind as well as the political mind has been greatly debauched. 
We have reached a time when almost all classes of people look to 
Congress to legislate for the promotion of their personal 
fortunes. This has sprung from the fact that class legislation 
has enriched classes. Others have seen this, and they come in 
and say, "Now it is our turn to be enriched; we are in the 
majority." Whither are we drifting if this is to be the case? 
Are we to abandon the political government made for us by our 
fathers and establish a paternal government which shall take 
control of the personal fortune of each citizen? If we are, sir, 
farewell to liberty, and let the greatest robber get all he can. 

I do not know what is to be the fate of this bill. I pray God 
for the good of our country, for the good of humanity, that this 
great Republic, standing as the great exemplar for the lovers of 
liberty all over the world, may not be stricken down in the house 
of its friends bv the passage of such a law as this, that the world 
is not to be taught that the Senate of the United States believes 
the people of the American States incapable of self-government. 

I pray not, Mr. President. I suppose life is as dear to me as 
it is to most people and those in near relation to me are as dear 
to me as to most people ; but, as God is my judge to-night, if I 
could save the American people from this act by giving my life, 
I would surrender it as freely as I ever performed any act m 
my life. [Applause in the galleries.] 



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